Lesson video

Hi there, my young philosophers, theologians and social scientists.

My name is Ms. Marks and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be learning about values as the new religion.

And this lesson is based very much on the ideas of Professor Linda Woodhead, who's a sociologist who studies religion and belief, particularly in Britain, in the modern world.

And this forms part of our unit on identity.

How does religion and belief look now, and what may the future bring?

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain what Linda Woodhead means by values as the new religion and state to what extent you agree or disagree.

So let's start with our key terms.

Function, what something does.

In sociology, what does the institution do for members of that society?

Linda Woodhead, a British sociologist of religion.

Nones, people who say they have no religion in surveys such as the England and Wales Census.

Values, principles or beliefs that guide how a person thinks, behaves and understands what matters in life.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, Linda Woodhead and values as the new religion and evaluating values as the new religion.

So let's start with our first section, Linda Woodhead and values as the New Religion.

Are there certain values which guide the way you think and show you what matters in life?

Pause the video and have a think about certain values you may have yourself and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, let's see what Izzy, Alex and Lucas are thinking with this question.

Izzy says "Equality is a very important value to me.

" I wonder if you had equality as one of your important values.

Alex says "Being caring and kind is important to me.

" You might have also had that.

And Lucas says "Taking opportunities is important to me.

" Perhaps you had something about that too.

So the different things that could be really important and guiding for us within our lives.

So Linda Woodhead is a sociologist of religion in the UK and she studies how patterns in religion and belief are changing over time and she's particularly interested in the rise of the nones.

So these are people who, when asked, state that they do not have a religion or belief, doesn't mean they necessarily don't believe in a God, but they state no, they don't belong to a particular religion or belief.

Linda argues that values are now taking the place and function that religion once did in society, particularly through her work studying the nones and who the nones are and what they do believe and what they do value.

She says that actually values themselves are now performing the function that religion was performing in the past.

So as a sociologist, she's very interested in the function of these different institutions as a social scientist.

What evidence do you think she might have used to support this idea then that values are now taking that place that religion once had in society?

Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well one really important piece of evidence that people like Linda Woodhead will use is the census.

So here we've got data from the census that's been taken over the past three times that it's happened to 2001, 2011 and 2021.

What can you notice about the change over time?

You've got a purple line here.

What do you notice is happening to that purple line?

What direction is it going in?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

That's right, it is showing that it is increasing.

It's still, whatever it is that we are looking at is still under the majority 'cause it's only 37.

2% of those who answered.

But there is definitely a kind of incline going up over time, isn't there?

The graph is showing us the percentage of people who responded to the England and Wales census question "What is your religion?

" with "No religion.

" These are the nones.

So this is the group that Linda Woodhead and other social sciences are particularly interested in studying and understanding, which has led to her idea that values is the new religion.

So as you can see here in the most recent census we had in 2021, we still don't have a majority of people saying that they're not religious.

But it has increased significantly, hasn't it?

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

According to the 2021 census for England and Wales, the majority of people are now part of the nones.

Is that true or false?

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, it's false, isn't it?

But why?

It's false because the amount has been rising each census since 2001, but it's still a minority at 37.

2% in 2021.

Well done.

So Linda Woodhead argues that religion used to perform certain functions for members of society.

Remember Linda Woodhead is a sociologist, she's really using that lens of social science to understand religion.

So she's interested in the function that religion used to perform for the society.

And some of those were a purpose in life.

So giving people that kind of direction and meaning in their life.

Connection to others, so being able to spend time with and feel connected and close to other people.

And also moral guidance.

So knowing what right and wrong actions might be or how to make different moral decisions.

So these are three important functions that religion used to have in society for many people.

However, as religion has declined in influence in society.

So this is whole other concept within social science as to what role does religion have now, but it has declined in its kind of influence across society.

Values have replaced functions according to Linda Woodhead.

So values aren't literally a new religion though, so it's not like the religion of values, but they're doing what religion did in terms of its function.

So where in the past someone might have been part of particular religion but told them, you know, why God had said, put humans on earth, what our purpose was.

Now people can find that purpose from values rather than from a belief in God.

The idea of connecting to others may have been in the past if people used to go to a place of worship each week together and they'd go there together and see one another and feel connected.

We know now for example, with churches that the number of people going to church each week is declining, but they might find that connection elsewhere by following the same values as others and also to do with moral guidance.

So whereas in the past Linda Woodhead argued people would've got that sense of right and wrong, what they should and shouldn't do from perhaps a religious text.

As the influence of that has declined people still need that guidance, but they can get that from values rather than religion.

So values aren't a new religion, but they perform the function that religion did in the past.

Well let's hear from Linda herself as to how and why she made this link then.

So Aisha's asking Linda "Why did you make a link between values and religion, Linda?

" And Linda says "I became interested in the place of values in our society because I noticed that they are talked about a lot these days, much more than in the past.

It's interesting to see the different values that different companies say they uphold.

I also notice that young people are often articulate about which values are meaningful to them in a way that older people are not.

" So it's interesting here that Linda's mentioned companies having certain values and I wonder, do you know of any companies that have certain values that they want to tell us they hold and why might they want us to know about these values?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to me or talk to the person next to you.

And Linda continues.

Sam's asking her "How have values become the new religion then, Linda?

" And Linda says "Organized religion, especially Christianity has been declining in Britain, this leaves a vacuum where before there was widespread agreement over Christian values like love, self-sacrifice, honesty, care for the poor.

So I suggest that in some ways values have become a new religion, supplying norms and binding society together in a way that religion used to.

" So if you remember, Linda Woodhead is a sociologist of religion.

So this idea of how does it help society to be bound together and what functions does this have for society is very important for her in the way she's understanding this.

So religion used to help bind people together with Christian values, for example in Britain.

And now we don't have the influence of religion as much, but values can do that sense of bringing people together and binding people together in a way that religion used to.

So if we didn't have religion or we've got a rise of people saying they're not religious, how can we get that widespread agreement over values today, then?

what are some of the mechanisms?

How can we have it that people learn and become attached to the same values as one another for it to be able to do that binding action?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's have a look at an example in today's lesson.

One example could be school values.

So perhaps you are in a school that has got a certain value or sometimes it's called an ethos or the mission statement of the school.

And you'll often find that sort of advertised when you enter the school, the building, you might have something that's handed to visitors so they can know what the values are of that school, or you'll also have it on the school website.

So you can see what is it that this school stands for?

If we want to come to this school or work at this school, what are we agreeing to?

So one example of gaining agreement over values is when they're used in a school.

A school value statement is often publicized on the websites and around the school in posters, perhaps you'll sat in a room now that's got your school values on posters around you.

Now this can help the group agree on them and feel more connected to one another because you know what your school stands for and who you are as a body, as a group of people.

So it can help everyone to agree and feel more connected to those values.

So have you ever been part of a school with certain values or an ethos statement?

What were those values and how did they help to get agreement from everyone in the school?

Was it something that could pull people together?

And what's some of the ways that the school tried to encourage that?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So in a sense, those values are giving people a sense of connection, perhaps a sense of purpose where perhaps it's something to do with achievement or everyone is respected and also it may be something about the way we treat one another and what we can and can't do in the way that we speak to and behave with other people.

So you can see how that's performing some of those functions that Linda Woodhead said that religion used to.

So let's look at a case study of other things that may happen in a school.

Sam and Aisha explain what they do during school time that supports their values.

Sam says "I care about equality and everyone being able to be themselves and at our school Equality's Club has really helped me find good friends.

" So it's something that Sam cares about and she can go and be with others that also care about it too.

And she actually has had that connectedness through meeting friends through that.

And Aisha says "I'm really passionate about caring for the planet and go to eco club each week with a group of my friends and we plan things to do around this.

" So again, we've got that sense of connection and purpose and perhaps things about you know, right and wrong behaviors in terms of how we can respect the planet too.

How could these values perform the function of religion for them then?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Which statement is most accurate about Linda Woodhead views on values as the new religion?

Values are literally becoming a new religion.

Everyone now follows the same value like a religion.

Values now perform the function that religion did before.

Religious values are more important than non-religious.

Which one of those is the most accurate?

Pause video and have a go.

We'll see what we done in a moment.

Well done, it was C.

Values now perform the function that religion did before.

They're not replacing religion as a belief system, but they're performing that function that religion did before.

So we've seen that shared values can perform the functions of religion for people today.

One of those functions is helping people connected to others with shared values.

So here we've got Alex and Izzy who are already social scientists and they want to investigate this within their own friendship groups at school.

They want to gather data they can easily compare across different groups of students.

So there's two types of data that Alex and Izzy could gather.

Quantitative data, which is information expressed in numbers, often used to identify trends, patterns or correlations, can help with comparisons, and qualitative data, information that's expressed in words and not numbers.

This can give a more in-depth understanding of what's being researched.

So which type of data could help them make comparisons across groups more easily?

Pause if you don't have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

That's right, quantitative data would be able to help them make those comparisons across year groups.

Which type of data could help them understand more about the values that a group share together?

Pause the video again and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done.

That would be qualitative data to really get a more in-depth understanding of what those values are that people have within a group.

So let's use this idea now to design our own survey to ask groups of friends about their values to see if they have shared values together or not.

You need to gather both quantitative and qualitative data as part of this and you need to do two things.

What questions are you gonna ask?

But then also which people will you ask the questions to?

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see if you come up with in a moment, Well done, some great ideas there.

So your survey plan may look something like this.

What questions would you ask?

You might ask what's your name, year group and class?

who do you class as being in your friendship group?

What activities does your group do together regularly?

What things do you think are really important in life?

And would you say you had any special values?

If so, what?

So here we've got a mixture of quantitative with your name, year, group and class, but also qualitative in terms of the values that a group may have and who is part of that group and how might they do certain actions to support those values together.

So you've got a mixture of different questions there.

And then who could we ask those questions to?

I was thinking I could ask four different friendship groups in the school, two in year 10 and two in year eight.

And then I might be able to see if there's a difference as people get older, as have an influence on their values and their friendship groups.

Each person completes it on their own and where possible both boys and girls will complete the survey.

And if you like, you could go ahead and do that survey with different groups of students in your school or students that you know, well done.

So onto our second section then.

Evaluating values as the new religion.

Have you heard of fundamental British values before?

You can look at the picture to see what those fundamental values are, but have you heard about them before?

Maybe you've had them talked about in your school.

Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, fundamental British values are something that have been put together by the British government and they could be used as a piece of evidence to support values as the new religion and British society because of that importance placed on them by the government.

So these were most formally introduced to schools in the year 2014 when schools were instructed by the government to promote them.

So all schools were expected to be promoting these fundamental British values.

Sometimes you might have posters again on the wall, sometimes you might have lessons where you are learning about them.

And these five things are seen as very important fundamental British values for British society.

We've got democracy, the rule of law, mutual respect, individual liberty and tolerance.

So all schools are supporting of these values.

So helping to ensure that everyone understands them and has that group agreement around them.

How could the promotion of British values in schools support Linda's view that values are functioning as a religion in society then?

So we're evaluating this idea of Linda and how could this be used to sort of support her idea.

Pause the video and have a think.

You can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well again, we've got this idea of connectedness and people feeling like they're part of British society and they're connected by having these shared values, but also that kind of guidance for a purpose in life and what should we be doing?

And then how should we be treating each other as well?

With moral guidance.

All kind of comes in part of these fundamental British values, doesn't it?

But it's not just in schools where values are promoted.

Warren is not religious and he's not at school anymore and he's guided by values in his work and his spending habits.

And he says, this is Warren, he's a none.

So he put in the census that he's not religious or doesn't have a original belief.

He says "I live my life by the values of respect for other humans and wanting to make the world a better place for others.

I do this through donating money to Lend With Care as I trust their values too.

Also, I make sure I align to the values of any company that I take on as a client in my work.

By showing our company values on the website, people can know what I stand for and what to expect.

" So for Warren, values are very important here for people to understand who he is and also who he might want to work with in the future.

Would a company's values influence you to spend money with them or not?

Do you think that that would sway you to spend money somewhere on it if you knew something about their values or that they didn't value certain things?

Pause video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So people's values can help them feel connected with others.

If you remember that idea that values as the new religion, performing that function of connectedness.

Farah is not religious and is guided by her values to campaign and protest about human rights around the world.

Here's Farah and she's another none.

She says "I'm an activist and campaigner to support human rights around the world.

Ensuring other humans are treated with dignity and respect and campaigning to stop it when they're not is an important part of my life.

I'm at my husband at a human rights protest and have formed many other friendships over the years.

" So here we can see that sense of connectedness with other people who share your values.

Why might Farah have become friends with other protesters.

In fact, she even met her husband at one of these protests.

Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Now, sometimes these values go beyond other humans to wanting to care for non-human animals as well.

And Faye is passionate about caring for animals in her work and spare time.

And here's Faye, who's another none.

She says "I'm guided by the value of all sentient life, which is why I became a vet.

This also means that I'm vegan as I don't want any living thing to suffer more because of me.

I run sessions at the Cauli-Power Club, which is a free cooking class at my local vegan cafe.

So that way I can help others be more caring too.

" Why might Faye want to share her values with others then?

Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do another check.

We've seen evidence in favor of Linda's view that values are the new religion.

Let's together give one way that values function as a religion for people today.

Hmm, people can base moral choices on their values.

So it gives that moral guidance.

If you think there that example she said from Faye about her being vegan, she's choosing not to eat meat because of that value.

So over to you then.

Give another way that values function as a religion for people today.

Pause a video and have a go and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

We could say that shared values can help people feel more connected to others, but we are evaluating values as the new religions.

So we've just had lots of evidence as to why they could be seen as the new religion.

But not everyone agrees however, the values are now performing all the functions of religion in the past.

Some may argue that religion performs functions which values alone could not replace.

I wonder if you could think of any?

Pause the video and have a think before I show you my ideas.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, some of the functions that religion performs that values alone would be able to do is beliefs and rituals, so actual beliefs that people might have about the world, about how the world came to be about afterlife.

All of these things can't necessarily be replaced by values and different rituals and actions that people may do as part of their religion and belief, which aren't necessarily about connecting to others or making a right or wrong decision.

But are the rituals for the religion itself?

Also experiences that people might have?

People can have very intense religious experiences as part of their religion and belief.

And could that be replaced by values alone?

Is there something different there?

Could that be used to suggest that values can't be the new religion when we have different religious experiences that people may have?

Let's explore this a bit more.

Some people would argue that values will not be able to replace religious beliefs and practices.

So here you've got Faith who's a Christian and Dhanu, who's from the Hindu Dharma and they're going to explain to us, Faith says "My be belief in God and Jesus as his son would always be more important to me than any values.

That is what shapes my life today.

" So there may be values that are in faith's life, but for her it's her belief in God that is the most important thing and values won't be able to replace that.

And Dhanu says "My daily practice of puja helps to ground me and prepare me for whatever happens.

I would not get this from values alone.

They will not replace it.

" So the practice of puja has that influence and a function for Dhanu that values just wouldn't be the same.

So it can't be that values are the new religion.

Can you think of any other examples of beliefs or practices that values alone would not be able to replace that function for somebody?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Others may argue that values will not be able to replace the intense experiences that religious people can have when connecting to the divine or God.

And we're going to look at two examples here.

Asher, who's a Charismatic Christian and Layla who's a Sufi Muslim, and they explain.

Asher says "During worship at church, I often feel a deep connection to God and a physical experience.

And this is more than values alone could do.

" And Layla says "During dhiker (which is a form of prayer) I feel a connection to Allah through the music and prayers.

I feel a love and a joy that I would not get from values.

" So we can see here that values alone are not gonna be able to replace those religious experiences for people like Asher and Layla.

And that might be a very important part of their connection to their religion is these sort of intense physical experiences that they have when they're performing certain worship and prayer as part of their religion.

So that could be used to say that values can't be the new religion.

And sometimes people can connect with values even when they have different religious identities.

So if they have different religious identities and they're still connecting on a value, doesn't that show that the religion is still something separate, something different that values will not be able to replace?

Let's look at an example.

We've got Tim, who's not religious, and Harry, who's from the Hindu Dharma, and they're an example of this for us.

Tim, who's a none says "When I saw Harry handing out free hot food to people in town, I was inspired to do the same as kindness and generosity of values in our cafe too.

" And Harry says "But I share food at the city center because I'm following dharma to act the compassion for all living things.

This idea is core to being Hindu.

" So they've got the same value here, but a different religious identity.

Does that show that therefore values cannot replace religion?

How could this example be used to say that values are not replacing religion?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Now we've seen evidence against Linda's view of values as the new religion.

So let's together give one challenge that could be given to the view of values as the new religion.

Hmm.

Religious beliefs and rituals are not replaced by values.

So over to you.

Give another challenge that could be given to the view of values as the new religion.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

I've got here "Religious experiences are not replaced by values.

" Well done.

So time for our second practice task.

And this has two parts to it.

Firstly, you're going to complete the table with ideas that can support and then go against the idea of values as the new religion.

So here we've got a table where you can put in those ideas from what we've had in the lesson or other ideas you might have had.

Things that could support the idea that values are the new religion and things that could go against the idea of values as the new religion.

And then secondly, which side of the table do you think has the strongest points?

And you can either write your answer or use the points that you've written in your table to have a debate with someone in the room.

So pause the video and have a go.

We'll see it come up with in a moment.

Well done, some great thinking there.

So your table might look something like this.

Reasons to support the idea of values as the new religion could be, values can help other people feel a strong connection to others.

Values can guide people with their moral choices.

The people want to share their values with others, a little bit like a religion, but reasons against the idea of values as the new religion.

Religion has important beliefs and practices involved in a way that values do not.

Religion can bring people intense experiences of God or the divine in a way that values do not.

And some people may see their religious identity and values as separate things showing that values are not there for replacing religion.

And onto the second part of the task, which side of the table do you think has the strongest points?

And you may have argued this, you may have debated it, we may have written it down.

Here's some points you might have said.

The stronger argument is that values are the new religion.

This argument is stronger because values are all around us in modern society in a way that religion is not.

Values bind us together with shared goals and ideas, which is what religion did in the past.

British values is a strong example of this as schools have to promote these rather than religious ideas like they might have done in the past.

Or the stronger argument is that values are not the new religion.

This argument is stronger because there are other functions in religion that values will never replace.

Values will not give people intense religious experiences or answer big questions like who created the universe.

So there will always be religion in society and values will not replace that.

And I wonder which side of the argument you landed on.

So let's summarize everything we've learned today then.

Values as the new religion.

Over time, religious ideas and practice have lost power and influence in society.

There's been a rise in the nones who do not affiliate with the religion.

Linda Woodhead using qualitative data as a social scientist, argues that values have become a new religion for the nones and others as they perform the function that religion once had in the past.

And there are arguments for and against whether values are indeed the new religion or not.

So well done for your hard work today, particularly as social scientists.

And I hope to see you again soon.

Bye bye.