SOCI 300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: A Priori And A Posteriori, Perfective Aspect, Totem
8 Feb 2018
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Marx = religion has a negative function: maintains power imbalances: durkheim = positive aspects, a bonding and ordering function. This can be based on inequality: all religions are true: religion is not true in the sense that people celebrate gods, or gods exist, Durkheim means that religions express the truth of collective life, they play a function that is necessary to collective life. However, when one studies the symbols of a religion, then one begins to understand how it makes sense. God is but a metaphor for society, just like society, god is this superior force that lies beyond the grasps of any one individual, god desires respect through this larger authority but also through his permanence. Just like society is there when we are born or die, god is eternal: durkheim argues that we can see the logic behind social life. The source of religion is not the individual and powerful groups, it is social life, society.
