ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 describes how Emile Durkheim, although he like Marx rejected any truth claims about Christianity, still saw the need for religion as the foundation of the social order. In his attempt to institutionalize sociology as an academic discipline worthy of study in the academy, he emphasized the role of the social system in defining all aspects of human behavior, religion foremost among them. For Durkheim, society and religious beliefs were one; social reality (or society), was the source of the origins of the supernatural. Durkheim saw totemism as the most primitive aspect of religion and the basis for the explanation of the universality of religion. The totem then becomes a religious object to be worshipped and respected. Durkheim proffered the view that religion and society are synonymous.
Although Durkheim concluded that religious beliefs were false, he still saw them as providing a basic function—that of societal integration. For Durkheim, religious beliefs may not have been true but they were functional for maintaining the social order. This definition of religion by Durkheim is the basis of most contemporary sociologists’ views of the relevance of religious beliefs for society.
