Conflict Theory Vs Structural Functionalism

Structural Functionalism looks at society as a whole and tries to explain why society functions the way it does. Functionalism also wants to look at how different institutions impact our everyday lives. Emile Durkheim, the central figure in functionalist theory, turned to concrete science of sociology rather than abstract moral philosophy to bring about social change (Ferris, Stein 22). Durkheim believed that people should play their part in society and society cannot thrive if people are not working together. A functionalist view on religion would look at a certain faith and see that people try to work together to spread the message of their god or deity and to hopefully bring peace to one another. Religion can connect people from all around the world and give them a sense of belonging. People in a particular religion may want to donate to charities or participate in mission trips in the name of their god to benefit a group in need and to also spread their faith.
Conflict Theory deals with the struggles that people or groups face because of the unequal distribution of social status, power, and resources. Like Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory is a macro-level approach to
A Conflict Theorist would look at religion as a way to use a god or deity to blind people from the injustices that a government places on society. Although religion may still take advantage of people in certain parts of the world, I am speaking on the religion that I know and the religion that most of population follows in the US. We have a separation of church and state, so the social structure is different than when the church controlled everything. Symbolic interactionism has an optimistic view towards religion and looks at how people perceive language compared to someone else, but the theory itself does not make much sense when talking about