Simulation of social processes based on software agents

The Agent Based Social Simulation (ABSS) is today a clear alternative for advancing in the sociological knowledge from a new methodological perspective which has a incorporating vocation power. Its application acquires special meaning when there is a big amount of data (quantitative, qualitative, longitudinal or transversal observations) and we want (and need) to arrive further than the constrains of each source and methodology. This will be useful in our attempt to improve the understanding, explanation and (when possible) prediction of the studied phenomena. Furthermore, it offer us the latent possibility of articulating more and better theory and empiria , one of the failing subjects of Sociology, because it allows to realize experiments for verifying hypothesis, examine assumptions or test the veracity and coherence of the theoretical frames. The signers are members of the Group of Software Agents, Engineering and Applications (GRASIA) of the UCM and they are working in the modelling of a social process: the religious transformations of the Spanish society since 1980. The article will show from this experience and from the example of this specific application, the possibilities and expectations, together with the challenges, difficulties and limitations of the agent based simulation in the sociological research.