Final 1Getting High: Religion and the acceptance of Social Hierarchy

This topic submitted by Sean Boda (bodasd@muohio.edu) at 12:30 PM on 4/30/02. Additions were last made on Tuesday, April 30, 2002. Section: Myers.

Getting High: Religion and the Acceptance of Social Hierarchy

By Sean Boda

Abstract:
ÒThere can be no denying the fact that from prehistoric times, as far back as modern investigators have been able to trace, man has always been in possession of a religion of some sortÓ (Krishna 55) Religion has always been a strong force in human cultures affecting the way people act and think. Throughout time social hierarchy has been a part of human society. Religion has been used as a social force to make people accept their lot in life and also their social ranking. In todayÕs secular society, does religion still play a role in determining how accepting one is of social hierarchy? The purpose of this study was to see if people today (Miami Students) would be more accepting of social hierarchy depending on how religious they are. One hundred surveys were distributed, forty-four were returned. The surveys asked about the personÕs religion, how religious he considered himself, if his parents had played a role in his spiritual journey, how comfortable he is with subservience, and other questions. The results show that there does seem to be a correlation between those who are more religious and more accepting of social hierarchy although more research should be done.

Introduction:
The phenomenon of religion is a mystery which so far has baffled all attempts toward a solution. There can be no denying the fact that from prehistoric times, as far back as modern investigators have been able to trace, man has always been in possession of a religion of some sort. Excavations of fossils of even the earlier Stone Age reveal ceremonial burials, thus furnishing evidence that, even in the primitive state of culture, belief in survival and the nature of the soul as an entity, separate and distinct from the body, was prevalent in the various forms among the savage populations of the earthÉ. I may be pardoned if I request the reader to put one simple question to himself: Why do we believe at all in the existence of an Omniscient and Omnipotent Divine Power that has brought this world and ourselves into existence, when we can find no evidence, perceptible to the senses, to prove conclusively that such a Power exists at all? (Krishna 55)

ÒThe believer is happy, the doubter is wiseÓ (Hungarian proverb).

The United States was a unique creation. While not the first democratic socety (the Romans did pretty well before it turned into an empire), it definitely was the first of its extent in the modern world. But one of the most unique elements in the list of freedoms guaranteed every citizen of this country from the beginning was the freedom of religion. This was unique because every society up until that point had had a specific religion that people had to follow. The United States was the first nation in history to separate church and state (Freedom from Religion Foundation). But did this mean that the United States also got rid of the social hierarchy associated with a strict religious system? Thomas Jefferson once said, ÒAn honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizensÓ and he was also the guy who came up with the idea that there should be a wall of separation between the church and the state, but he still owned slaves, was president of the United States, drafted the Declaration of Independence and was an elitist who spent his time in his mansion Monticello running up debt. The purpose of my inquiry into this highly flammable debate was to see if people today are accepting of social hierarchy and if this acceptance has a correlation with religious belief. Religion is perhaps one of the most important influences on history and has been around as long as we could call ourselves homo-sapien-sapien. Every single culture that has ever arisen in the history of the human species in every part of the world has come up with some kind of religion, mandatory belief system and/or spiritual guides. And all of these organized religious societies had a very rigid social hierarchy. From looking at older societies, it seems (especially in the theocracies) that the religion was created/formed to keep the rigid caste system or social system. For instance, many ancient religions regarded the spiritual leader as either a demi-god or godÕs chosen one and that in turn would require the absolute loyalty from the population.
In more recent times and more recent religions, the trend is still repeated it seems. Kings and royalty are godÕs chosen and blood lines are kept Òpure.Ó And the some of the most privileged people throughout history have been the priests. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church and its use as a way to keep people in their ÒplaceÓ is a very well known fact throughout the Middle Ages. But the question I want to pose is, is this hierarchical society programmed into us through religion? Are religious people more tolerant of hierarchy? Because of location (Miami University, United States) this study will inevitable focus more on the Christian religion because that is the dominant belief system in this country. ÒIt is well to remember that from the very start Christianity has had its critics. Some scholars doubted JesusÕ divinity and considered him a magician. Unfortunately, our knowledge of these early critics is limited, for when the Christian church became strong enough to gain support from the Roman Empire, it used its power to ferret out and destroy books by heretics and pagan critics. This suppression lasted for many centuriesÓ (Martin 3). Since there have not been many studies on this topic or relating these topics, I looked more at the philosophical point of view using several books and the internet and then came up with my own conclusions and theories that answer the questions I pose.
This research is interesting to me because IÕve always wondered why so many people accept their place. Why do we accept that some people are ÒinherentlyÓ better than us? And why do we have such a hierarchical society when we realize now that most people do not work to gain their position, but rather are born into it? It would seem to me that this research would be very important in determining the source of this indoctrination of social hierarchy. My hypothesis is that those persons who identify themselves as more devout/religious followers will be more accepting of hierarchy.
This topic is a controversial one. I know this first hand from the many fiery discussions IÕve been involved with over the semester pertaining to this topic and from some of the inflammatory comments IÕve received on my survey. But I knew from the beginning that this wasnÕt going to be a piece of cake. Religion strikes to the core of everyone. Those who hold it dear to their hearts defend with great ferocity, those who are against attack it harshly. There seems to be no middle ground and I wouldnÕt expect there to be. Not that there isnÕt a wide range of religious beliefs, but this is a topic that no one is neutral on, everyone has an opinion. This is one of the reasons it is such a hard subject to study and to survey. I have always been interested in religion and how it has affected human societyÑI wanted to have some evidence on some of the ill effects of religious belief and so I finally chose to focus my topic on religion and social hierarchy. Originally I thought to do something on religion and the subjugation of women, but this seemed like a study too complex to look at just in the context of this course.
Organized religion always has been and remains the greatest enemy of women's rights. In the Christian-dominated Western world, two bible verses in particular sum up the position of women: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."--Genesis 3:16. By this third chapter of Genesis, woman lost her rights, her standing--even her identity, and motherhood became a God-inflicted curse degrading her status in the world (Why Women Need Freedom from Religion http://www.ffrf.org/nontracts/women.html).
But put in a greater context I choose to look at how religion has impeded greater social mobility and how that continues today.
I think that this study has a lot of relevance in todayÕs world. We still have religious wars and uncountable acts of violence done in the name of religion. Much of the world is living in poverty with no hope for anything else and yet missionaries are out among them bringing the Ògood newsÓ and then coming home back to their comfy lives. The fighting in the Mid-East has been going on for generations and all because of religious intolerance. So this study, while not focusing on those aspects specifically, is important in the larger context of religion today.
To end this introduction, IÕll use a quote I found from one of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams in a speech he made entitled, ÒIs there an artificial God?Ó
There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be, but we have done various things over intellectual history to slowly correct some of our misapprehensions.

Materials and Methods:
In order to test my hypothesis that those persons who identify themselves as more devout/religious followers will be more accepting of hierarchy, I created 100 surveys to pass out to Miami students. I passed out the surveys over a two-week period, first by putting them under the door of dorm rooms in Peabody hall and then passing them out at performances of Godspell and passing them out in the Shriver center. Unfortunately, I only received 44 of those 100 surveys back, but at least enough to make some generalizations. The survey questions were created to see if there was a correlation between those who identified themselves as very religious and who were also comfortable with having hierarchy. There were 11 questions on the survey, either one-word answer or scale questions (1-10 for example) that were meant to be quick and non-invasive. I explained the survey to my Natural Systems class during my poster presentation before I passed it out and with their suggestions along with that of the professor I made several changes to the questions and the format. I wanted the questions to be simple because I know what a sensitive topic this is and if I asked questions that werenÕt yes or no, I would have essays on my hand from a few that need to have all their opinions expressed. The survey appears as follows:

Please return to 325 Peabody Hall
This survey is completely confidential and results will be used in a Natural Systems project. Please answer honestly.

1. On a scale from 1-10, how religious/spiritual would you consider yourself:

2. With what religion are you affiliated? Catholic, Protestant___________(please specify), Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Other_________(please specify), agnostic, atheist.

3. Do both your parents/guardians affiliate themselves with the same religion as you? Yes No

4. If so, would you say that they were a large influence on your Òspiritual journeyÓ? Yes No

5. How often would you say you attend a religious service? Every day, Every few days, Once a week, A few times a month, Once a month, Once a year, very rarely, never.

6. On a scale from 1-10, 1 being the least comfortable and 10 being the most, how comfortable are you being in a subservient position?

7. In your family, would you consider your father the ÒheadÓ of your household?

8. In a group setting, are you more likely to favor having a group leader who is in charge and hands out responsibilities, or would you favor a dynamic group that has no specific leader?

9. Is social class inevitable or avoidable?

10. What is your age?

11. What is your sex?

Results:
The results of this survey are as follows:
Out of 44 surveys, 38 listed a religious preference, 6 listed either atheist or Ònone.Ó Religions listed included 34 Christians (12 Catholics, 22 ProtestantsÑMethodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Non-denominational), 3 Jews and 1 Muslim.
Looking at spirituality, people rated on a scale from 1-10 how religious/spiritual they considered themselves 1 being the least and 10 being the most (I write the number out (ex: two) for the number of surveys that answered for that number, the number is listed (ex: 3)): Those who listed no religions or atheistÑtwo rated 1, one rated 2, two rated 3 and one rated 7
Christians and others: five rated 3, two rated 4, seven rated 5, four rated 6, eighteen rated 7, one rated 8 and one rated 9.
38 out of the 44 or 86% of the surveys listed their parents as affiliating themselves with the same religion as themselves. 100% of those that listed a religion also said their parents were of the same religion.
26 out of 38 religious people or 68% of those surveyed said that their parents had played a large influence on their spiritual journey.
Attendance of a religious service: eight people went once a week, six people a few times a month, seven people once a month, thirteen people once a year, six people very rarely and four people never.
I asked if in the family, they would consider their father the ÒheadÓ of the household. 16 people said yes (all also listing a religion) and 28 people said no.
I asked how comfortable people were in a subservient position, 1 being the least comfortable, and 10 the most. Out of the atheists two listed 2, one listed 3 and three listed 5. Out of the religious, one listed 1, four listed 2, five listed 3, seven listed 4, eighteen listed 5, two listed 6 and one listed 7.
I asked if people preferred a dynamic group with no leader, or a group with a specific leader. 31 people preferred a dynamic group and 13 preferred a leader
For the question is social class inevitable or avoidable 28 people said it is avoidable and 16 said it was inevitable (all of the atheists and non-religious people said inevitable).
The age range of the survey was from 18-23 and all were Miami students
26 females and 18 males answered the survey.
Out of those who answered average or above average (5-10) on how religious/spiritual they considered themselves (31 people) 61% (19/31) answered above average on how comfortable they were in being in a subservient position.

Next Article
Previous Article
Return to the Topic Menu