void in their lives. He believed that religion allowed people to forget their misery and escape the mundane lives they live. Religions such as Hinduism support social inequality. The Egyptian pharaoh is revered as a god and demands hierarchical social structure. Civil wars develop because of different social ideas of utopia. Karl Marx said, ”it [religion] is the opiate of the people.”Max Weber disagreed with the conflict theory of religion. Weber said ,”Religion held the key to modernization.”Religion has four types of followings. A religion is a cult, a sect, a church, or an ecclesia. Cults are new religions generally started by one person. He or she shares ideas, gifts, or qualities, which appeal to groups. Sometimes a cult forms out of another religion. New religions grow in size and become a sect. The members of a sect become a little more respectable in society. A church differs from a sect in that a church has written prayers, formal sermons, and usually new members are the offspring of old members. An ecclesia is a merger between church and government. They work together to shape society. All citizens have membership in an ecclesia. Today the uses of an ecclesia are formal such as baptism, marriages, and funerals. In the United States, there are many types of religion. Some religions adapt to worldly ideas and offer a God who has no contact with his followers. These types of religions have consistently lost members while religions that rely on fundamentals of religion gain members. Member gain and loss cause churches to compete and recruit people through media, missions, televangilism, and the Internet. On the Internet, there is a wealth of knowledge on religion. In fact, the Vatican has three computers online. They are called Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. At all times of the day and night these computers collect, organize, and store enormous amounts of data. Religion remains a ...
