SO 385: Social Theory

Team Paper 1: Religion

September 12, 2016
Testing Weber: How Much Has Religion Been Disenchanted?
Classical sociologist Max Weber is renowned for his work on motivations for social
action the modern world, and for having worked closely with religious structures when creating
his theories. His most famous conclusions involve the rationalization and intellectualization of
the modern world, which to him meant that people were no longer motivated by values or
tradition or that they no longer sought a meaningful place or understanding of the universe, but
instead through cost-benefit analyses that would yield the best possible outcome of their situation
and where one need no longer have recourse to magical means in order to master or implore the
spirits Technical means and calculations perform this service, which to Weber was less of an
understanding of a world and more of an explanation of nature functions. (Weber 1946: 247)
Today, we can see that much of this holds true when the world is taken at a glance.
Scientists are rewarded with prestige and money while philosophers and artists struggle to make
a living, and many people working in office cubicles find themselves reduced to a performance
score out of 100. However, to see if Webers predictions that the fate of our times is
characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of
the world. hold true we must look in the same place he did to see if similar changes are taking
place as to the rest of the world. (Weber 1946: 251-2)
During the Industrial Revolution, much of the data that Weber had available showed that
the most prosperous people were typically Protestant, as opposed to Catholic or Jewish. In order
to find out why this might be Weber looked at what values were important to Protestants and
how those compared to the actions that would typically lead toward success in the economic

world. He concluded that since Protestantism and Capitalism emerged as dominant forces at
roughly the same time, especially in the United States, that Protestant values put them at a
disposition for economic success in Capitalism, and that their success enabled them to influence
how the rest of us are forced to live under Capitalism.
To prove this conclusion Weber theorized that what motivates social action can be
categorized in four ways: traditional, affective, values, and rational choice. Weber classifies
traditional action as any action motivated by social customs and norms. It is an action taken
because the individual takes for granted that this is the way things have always been done and
should continue to be done this way. Affective action is motivated by a desire to be liked or
because the individual likes someone else. Value actions are motivated by a desire to follow and
uphold a belief system held by the individual. An example of this is an action taken to prove
faithfulness to a religion or in accordance with a political ideology. Finally, and of the most
concern to Weber, is rational choice actions, which are motivated by cost-benefit analyses where
the individual intentionally seeks the best possible outcome to any given situation.
I will be using data from the Association of Religion Data Archives (the ARDA) to test if
Webers predictions that rational choice would eventually take over the way people thought is
correct using two hypotheses. Firstly, Webers presupposition that religion and science are
mutually exclusive ways of understanding the world should be mirrored by the religious
population. Secondly, if Weber is correct then we should expect to see amongst religious
populations a fall in the strength of their affiliation to their religion in addition to a generally
weak adherence toward religious practices.
The ARDA collected data on whether or not people felt that science and religion cannot
exist together directly through a question on their survey. According to their data just over two

thirds of people disagree or strongly disagree with the statement science and religion are
incompatible. (Bader, Paul Froese, et al. 2007: Science) This initial data would seem to say that
most religious people have found a way to make science and their religion coexist. However, the
ARDA also found that more than half of respondents replied that they are somewhere between
strong disagreement and undecided on whether or not humans evolved from other primates.
(Bader, Paul Forese, et al. 2007: Evolution) Since such a foundational belief in science is unable
to be concretely agreed with among religious populations the initial conclusion would seem to be
incorrect. That is to say, despite most religious people believing that religion and science are
compatible, since they are unable to make the values of both agree, mainstream religion and
science are not compatible.
The ARDA also lists information on how strong the affiliation of respondents were with
their religion through a direct question in their survey. According to them (after eliminating No
Religion responses) roughly 36% of respondents had a strong affiliation to their religion. (Davis,
Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden 2010: Affiliation) As for religious practices, Weber
elaborates specifically on the practices of Protestants and how all Protestants work towards their
Calling from God. However, according to the ARDA 41.9% of Protestants reported they have
not felt called to God before. (Bader, Paul Forese, et al. 2007: Calling) Additionally, amongst
respondents of all religions (after eliminating respondents who said None) only 69.7% say they
pray more than once a week. (Davis, Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden 2010: Prayer) All of
this together shows that for most religious populations, their attachment to their religion is not
very strong, and that the majority of them do not act devoutly religious when it comes to
following through with religious tradition.

This data shows strong support for Webers belief on the future of what would motivate
social action. Weber would classify following religious tradition both a value motivated and
tradition motivated social action, since it is an action motivated both by religious values and by
something passed on generationally to solidify a social norm. The decline in people following
religious tradition then, is roughly equivalent to a decline in value and tradition actions. While it
cannot be said that this immediately correlates to a rise in rational action, the dissonance in
religious populations answers to the questions about science does point to this. Most of the
answers showed that people struggle to accept evolution but can accept science as part of their
lives. In other words, more and more religious people have accepted a scientific mode of
thinking into their lives, even if they are unwilling to accept the conclusions of the sciences.

Works Cited
Bader, Christopher D., Paul Forese, Byron Johnson, F. Carson Mencken, and Rodney Stark.
2007. Evolution | QuickStats | The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved
September 21, 2016 (http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_23_p.asp).
Bader, Christopher D., Paul Forese, Byron Johnson, F. Carson Mencken, and Rodney Stark.
2007. Felt Called by God to Do Something | QuickStats | The Association of Religion
Data Archives. Retrieved September 21, 2016
(http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_158_p.asp).
Bader, Christopher D., Paul Froese, Byron Johnson, F. Carson Mencken, and Rodney Stark.
2007. Are Science and Religion Incompatible? | QuickStats | The Association of
Religion Data Archives. Retrieved September 21, 2016
(http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_165_p.asp).
Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. 2010. Frequency of Prayer | QuickStats |
The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved September 21, 2016
(http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_104_p.asp).
Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. 2010. Strength of Affiliation |
QuickStats | The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved September 21, 2016
(http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_103_p.asp).
Weber, Max. 1946. Science and the Disenchantment of the World. In Class PDF for Sept 9
24652.