ABSTRACT
Religious disagreement is the richest material for cultural analysis. Debates which originate in quite mundane issues tend to become religious if they go on long enough. Durkheim said that religion is the consciousness of the consciousness. Certainly a religious debate goes straight to first pr inciples. It is a more conscious kind of debate than one in which the contenders first disagree about taxes or property rights and then go on to invoke justice, humanity, and God. A relig ious debate parades transcendental reasons at the outset.
