Is Sociology a Non-religious Field of Study? -By Sulaiman Ayuba

Whenever social issues come to attention, many people think that Sociology is that wicked discipline that deciphers and urged them to worship other Gods besides the ones they believed in. While other people tolerate the discipline for being the most value-judgemental, logically added and pathologically swept the problem of the society without affecting the belief of one person, or proper a lopsided analysis. Despite this, Sociology has become a discipline that received tremendous insult for not being religious in its analysis of the social World. Some see the discipline as secular, and her students are often attributed to many ‘ism’ such as Atheism, Animism, Free Thinkers and followers of the ancient proponents of the discipline (Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Spencer), therefore, they worship some religious doctrines established by these founding fathers.

To make the issue very clear, sociology is one of the most religious disciplines. This is because sociology studies human society in holistic to understand the role of its institutions ( religion is one of them) in running the system and how contribution by a particular system can help towards the survival of the whole. In doing this, Sociology will use the clear analysis of what’s happening in reality with a logical outlook, verified assumptions, and hypotheses, grounded concepts, and bulletproof evidence to explain how people see religion, and how it governs them. What some people think is that Sociology has discarded religion in all it’s doing, no, it isn’t like that. Sociology treats religion like any other institution in society. And, there isn’t any field in Social science that attempts to understand Man and his religion other than Sociology. How?

To answer this question, various explanations by the Sociologists should be considered. For example, let’s take a look at the explanation of religion given by the 3 most prominent founding fathers in the disciple.

1. Durkheim: To him, religion is the institution that provides order in society. And that, he believed, people come under religion to have unity and worship what they believed is supernatural to them. In doing that, people will be indirectly worshipping society (means unity of themselves). Though Durkheim studied religion in its elementary form, he has proven that even in contemporary society, religion Plays the role of unity and a moral sense of belonging.
2. Weber: he believed that religion had played a pivotal role in the development of capitalism in Europe, particularly the Chauvinist. In his work, Protestant ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he has explained the role of religion in motivating people to be self-reliant and boost their earnings.
3. Karl Marx: in his outlook on the clear role of religion in human society, he believed that in the classical capitalist society, religion was used as the mechanism to exploit the lower class. He termed it as ‘Opium of the Masses’ because he thinks it’s like a medication giving to the masses by the upper class via their religious leaders to ease their pain of been exploited in the industries after they have been alienated.

However, considering the 3 explanations given by the founding fathers of Sociology, all of them are trying to view religion from various angles of how it has been used and the role it played in society. Nobody is against religion in Sociology. Sociologists are just giving a clear explanation of what they observed about religion and how it’s been handled in our societies without sweeping generalization of whether creed A or B is right or wrong. No, the role of Sociology is to decipher the reality of what she observed, that’s why many find it difficult to understand because it doesn’t suit their interest by either hailing their creed and condemning others. The role of Sociology is to explain the issue of religion from a clear perspective and or observable facts.

Also, Economics mainly studies the economic institution of society. Health practitioners Study only the health institution, Biology study man, and his life cycle and any other courses dwell heavily on specific aspects of a Man’s life. Religion courses study moral adjustment in society. But Sociology is a compendium in dealing with issues of the society, it can study all these disciplines as sub-courses under it. And that, almost all the disciplines may Study religion in a biased way, but Sociology can never do that. For example, a religious teacher may spend a lot of time talking about how other creeds aren’t holier and that his students should stay away from it. But in Sociology, an equal assessment will be given to all religions, and if there’s a problem in the society, the religious organization that owns the problem will be attributed to it. With that, many people see Sociology as a secular or non-religious field of study.

Lastly, have you ever search for the meaning of sociology in books, the internet, and other related materials? If you don’t, please do so.

Bio: Sulaiman Ayuba is a graduate of Bachelor of Science from prestigious Gombe State University, Nigeria. And currently a student of Master of Art in Sociology in Mahav University, India.

You can reach him via mail: splato379@gmail.com
or WhatsApp: +917742349388.