Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

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

And today, we're going to be thinking about "The future of religion," particularly in England and Wales.

As we look at some of the census data and religion from the past and perhaps make some predictions about the future.

We're going to look at a big important thesis that was put forward by many social scientists, called the secularisation thesis, and see whether that argument, that prediction really did come true or not.

And so for this, we're going to be using a lot of the tools of social science.

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

So by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain what the secularisation thesis is and how this relates to religion and Generation Z today.

Let's start with our key terms. Generation, a group of people born and living around the same time, usually about 20 to 30 years apart.

Secularisation thesis, the idea put forward is social science that as a society becomes more modern, it becomes less religious.

Spiritual, a sense of connection to something greater than oneself, such as a higher power, or nature.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today, we'll have two sections, the secularisation thesis and Generation Z and religion.

Let's start with our first section, the secularisation thesis.

What do you think will happen to religion in the UK in the future? Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, Lucas, Izzy and Alex are sharing their ideas.

Lucas says, "I think people will stop being religious." Izzy says, "I think new ways of being religious will come along." And Alex says, "I think religions will change to suit society more." I wonder which of these you might agree with more.

Social scientists are very interested in the role of religion in society and how this may be changing.

Social scientists look at data like the census of England and Wales to predict the changing role of religion in society.

This graph shows the number of people who responded in the census with no religion in the last three sets of census data.

So we've got 2001, 2011, 2021.

So what predictions could we make from this about what will happen in 2031 then? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, social scientists might predict from this that it will continue to rise and there'll be more and more people saying they are not religious in census data.

Well, one important branch of social science is sociology.

Sociologists are interested in the way that society functions and changes over time.

One aspect of this is the changing role and importance of religion.

The founding thinkers of sociology, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Karl Marx, all supported version of the secularisation thesis.

This thesis states that as society becomes more developed and modern, it will be less religious.

This thesis was based on the declining importance of religion during their lifetime, as they saw a rapid change in people's lives through the Industrial Revolution, urbanisation, and modernization of society.

Max Weber argued that in modern societies, people would not have such a need for religion and religious explanations for natural events.

One example could be that before we had scientific knowledge of the Big Bang theory and evolution, people were likely to give supernatural and spiritual causes for the universe.

This meant that people were more likely to believe the biblical stories of how the world was created were literally true, as an example.

As we gained scientific knowledge about how the world came to be and life developed, we no longer have a need for the religious supernatural explanations, but can explain them through natural processes.

Eventually religion would lose its importance over individual people and society as a whole according to the secularisation thesis.

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

The secularisation thesis was put forward by biologists.

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.

That's false, isn't it? But why? Because it was put forward by social scientists like sociologist Max Weber.

Well done.

So the secularisation thesis can be shown like this.

We've got here the amount of people who are religious and then the passage of time.

And over time, less and less people are going to be religious.

This is the thesis, the secularisation thesis.

As societies become more modernised, they will become less religious.

So what's the evidence for this then? Lower church attendance numbers.

So we can see that less and less people within, for example, in British society where before many more people used to go to church.

Now, less and less people are going to church.

There's an increase in people saying they're not religious.

We saw that in the census data from 2001 up to 2021.

There's been an increase in people saying they're not religious.

There's also been an increase in civil marriages and birth celebrations.

So whereas in the past people would have a church marriage, for example.

Now, there's more and more people not choosing to have religious marriages at all, but to have civil ones.

So that's another example of the influence of religion decreasing over somebody's life.

Scientific explanations of the universe are more accepted instead of religious ones, is one piece of evidence that's used about the secularisation thesis.

So as we've got scientific answers for things, we no longer need to necessarily turn to religion or supernatural explanations.

And also, medicine and social support helps people instead of religion.

So if you think way back before we had an understanding of germs and medicine and diseases and people would pray and ask for help that way.

Now, people can go to the doctor and get help through medicines to help them with different diseases and ailments they might have.

And there's ways of society supporting people instead of it always having to fall down to a religious group or organisation.

So these are all things that could be used to support that secularisation thesis.

But what about some data then? Well, Pew Research have compiled together different countries that rank on the United Nations Human Development Index.

So that takes into account lots of different aspects of life within our countries, not just economical.

They've taken lots of different aspects of life and they've ranked different countries as to how developed they feel that those countries are.

So along the bottom here, we've got how close to one a country ranks on the UN Human Development Index.

But then also we've got the percentage of people who report as being religious within that country.

And Pew researchers plotted these two things together and shown that the higher a country ranks on this Human Development Index from the United Nations, the less people are likely to be religious.

So the more sort of developed the country is according to the United Nations Index here, the less people are religious.

And this is just a snapshot.

You can go to the researchers' see hundreds of countries there mapped out, and this is a snapshot showing the trajectory of that line.

As the country becomes more developed, there are less people who are religious.

How could that support the secularisation thesis then? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, this seems to match the idea that as a country becomes more developed, less and less people are religious.

Well, let's see what Nell and Zoe say who have got secular worldviews.

Nell says, "I'm a humanist and I don't believe there's a God at all.

I believe there will always be a natural explanation for events, so we do not need supernatural ones." So as Nell understands more about sort of scientific understanding the world for her, that means she doesn't need supernatural explanations for things.

And Zoe says, "I'm an atheist and I grew up in a city with lots of different religions.

I was never sure which one was right, and I decided none of them were true, but I respect their right to believe it." How could theirs two stories support the secularisation thesis 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 country on the graph had the highest number of people who affiliated with religion? Pause the video and have a go.

So you come up with in a moment.

Well done.

It was Yemen.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned.

Use the image as a prompt, and explain what the secularisation thesis is.

Use each word in the table.

You've got social science, religion, modern, and argument.

And here you've got the graph showing that over time, people would become less religious according to this thesis.

Pause the video and have a go.

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

Well done, some great thinking there.

I asked you to explain what the secularisation thesis is, using the words in the table and your response may look something like this.

The secularisation thesis is an argument put forward by some scholars in social science about religion in society.

The thesis is that as a society becomes more modern, religion will be less important for individuals and the whole of that society.

Well done.

So on to our second section then Generation Z and religion.

Well, that was the argument for the secularisation thesis that we put forward in the first part of the lesson.

But many social scientists today point to evidence that the secularisation thesis has not happened in the way that it was predicted.

For example, some religious groups in the UK have increasing numbers, e.

g.

, Pentecostal Christians, Roman Catholicism, and Shamanism, and many others.

So it hasn't happened that people are less and less religious necessarily in every single religious group.

Some countries in the world have become more religious as they've become more developed.

So one example that's used is Iran, which had a Muslim revolution in 1979 after great economic development, a revolution happened that was very religious in its nature that kind of went against the secularisation thesis in a big way.

And many people may not call themselves religious but do take part in religious and spiritual practises, showing it's still significant, e.

g.

, meditation, yoga, astrology.

But it may not be that they are religious, but there are religious ideas and spiritual ideas and practises which are still significant, no matter how developed a country is.

So the term Generation Z is used by social scientists, and it's a part of cultural studies.

So let's understand it a bit more.

We know that generation means a group of people born in the same period of time is linked to words like gene and generate.

So a generation is an age of people, a group of people born around the same time.

Generation Z is used to refer to the generation born between around 1997 and 2012.

You might have heard of other phrases like Generation X or millennials, that we've got Generation Z as those that were born within that time period and we can look at them and their religious affiliation and understand what's going on with them to do with religion.

Social scientists are those who study culture are interested in why religious beliefs, practises and spirituality appeal to Generation Z more than previous generations, disproving the secularisation thesis.

If Generation Z are more open to religion or they are taking part in more religious practises, that obviously goes against the secularisation thesis, doesn't it? Let's do a quick check before we move on.

During which years do social scientists say Generation Z were born in? 1965 to 1980.

1981 to 1996.

1997 to 2012.

2013 to 2025.

Which of those is Generation Z? Pause the video and have a go.

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

Well done, it was c, 1997 to 2012.

Well done.

Well, social scientists have given different reasons why religion and spirituality may appeal to Generation Z, including, spiritual practises linked to mental health.

So things to do with mindfulness and meditation can connect to some spiritual practises.

And as we talk about mental health more, and Generation Z is more open to discussing it, they may be more open to trying these different spiritual practises.

Also, Generation Z are very aware of the climate crisis that we are living through, and there may be particular religions or religious worldviews which are appealing to them as ways of tackling with and coping with the climate crisis.

For example, paganism and shamanism are very nature-based worldviews.

So perhaps the reason for their appeal is that they are helping to connect with and try and understand nature as a response to the climate crisis.

Also, there's digital approaches to religion which are opening up more ways of being able to interact with and be religious than perhaps was possible in the past.

Also, Generation Z are living through some very uncertain times.

We talked about the climate crisis, but there's also been COVID-19 and the global pandemic.

There's also the cost-of-living crisis.

So as there are difficult times that people are living in, perhaps they might turn to religion to have a sense of hope or a sense of supernatural help.

Also, some social scientists have pointed to the fact that some religions have quite traditional gender roles, which may appeal to members of Generation Z who feel they're in wider society and culture that aren't those traditional gender roles anymore, but they want to have them.

So they might turn to those religions where they view those traditional gender roles as being well established.

And then also Generation Z has access to information about many different religions and paths.

So it's not just about who you might meet or who might speak to you individually, but also with different social media apps and that kind of huge amount of information that's out there for people to access, perhaps Generation Z are more able to pick and choose and take part in different religions than they might have done in the past.

So here's Jo, she's not religious, but she explains the role that spirituality has in her life.

She says, "I would not say that I'm religious, but I am open to spirituality.

I take part in yoga and meditation with my partner, Toby.

I like how spiritual approaches to life respect the planet and I believe there are some forces in the universe that science cannot explain." So she's open to spirituality, although she wouldn't call herself religious, so perhaps that could go against the secularisation thesis.

And Asher is a Pentecostal Christian and he explains the role that religion has in his life.

"I'm a Pentecostal Christian and I have intense religious experience when I worship God, which show me there's something beyond the physical world.

Without that, modern life can seem too materialistic." So for Asher, for him, he gets something from this worship with God.

He has the sensation and feelings that there's something beyond the physical world.

There's something else here just beyond the material and what we have around us.

And for him perhaps that gives them that sense of purpose and belonging.

Another example we can look at is Islam, which is the fastest-growing of the sort of main religious traditions according to the census data for England and Wales.

So we know that shamanism is the fastest-growing of any religion that people wrote where it went up from 650 to 8,000 people.

But in terms of the kinda larger, main religious groups that we have in England and Wales, Islam is the fastest-growing.

And on the graph here, I've got the numbers, but then also the percentage of the population to see how this has been increasing.

In 2001, it was about 3.

1% of the population.

In 2011, 5% of the population.

And then in 2021, 6.

5% of the population.

So we could see that this is growing.

So even though the secularisation thesis would be that over time less people would be religious, here's an example showing that a growing number of people who are Muslim in this census data.

What could it show us about the secularisation thesis then? Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

That data for the number of Muslims in England and Wale could be used against the secularisation thesis.

So Sarah and Mustafa are going to explain.

Mustafa says, "I was raised in a cultural Muslim home but not expected to practise.

I went to the mosque once for a talk about modern life and Islam answered so many of my questions." And Sarah says, "I reverted to Islam from Christianity after watching some videos online of Muslim reverts speaking about their journey.

My faith gives me great purpose and fulfilment." So both Sarah and Mustafa here have got a strong connection to their faith, but would say that this is more than it was in the past for them.

So they have reverted into their understanding of Islam today.

What aspects of modern life may have encouraged Sarah and Mustafa to do that reversion then? What things in modern life would be something that might have encouraged them to become religious rather than not? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Perhaps for Mustafa, he was thinking about some of the difficulties that are being faced in the world around him.

He might have been thinking about the climate crisis, the cost-of-living crisis.

He might have been finding things difficult and found that is Islam answered those questions for him in a way that modern society wasn't anymore.

And for Sarah, she only discovered what it was to be a Riva and understood those stories because she saw it online.

Maybe she was on a social media site and that's where she learn those stories and she might not have ever had that opportunity before modernity.

It's time for a quick check to see what we've learned.

There is evidence that religion and spiritual approaches to life are appealing to Generation Z.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done, that is true, isn't it? Because some religious groups are increasing in number, e.

g.

, Islam and Pentecostal Christianity and also, many people may accept spirituality, rather than organised religions.

Well done.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned.

For each of the characters in the table below, explain how their case study could be used against the secularisation thesis.

Jo was spiritual but not religious.

Asher, a Pentecostal Christian.

Mustafa reverted to Islam after being a cultural Muslim.

And Sarah reverted to Islam from Christianity.

How could each of those cases go against the secularisation thesis then? Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

I've done some great thinking.

So I asked you to see how each of the case studies could be used against the secularisation thesis.

And you may have said, Jo is spiritual and not religious, which shows that spirituality appeals to people in modern society.

Asher is a Pentecostal Christian.

He shows that religious experiences could appeal to people in modern society.

Mustafa reverted to Islam after being a cultural Muslim, shows that modern society gives questions that religion can answer.

And Sarah reverted to Islam from Christianity, showing that modern society can make it easier to find out about religions.

Well done.

So let's summarise everything we learned today then the future of religion.

Social scientists are interested in the role of religion in society and how this has changed over time.

Sociologists like Max Weber have put forward the secularisation thesis, that as societies modernise, people become less religious.

But there is evidence from the current generation in England and Wales that this is not the case.

So well done on your hard work today, my young scholars of religion, and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye!.