Emile Durkheim expanded upon Tönnies ' recognition of alienation, and defined the differences between traditional and modern societies as being between societies based upon " mechanical solidarity " versus societies based on " organic solidarity ".

The sociologist Durkheim, in his seminal book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, defined religion as a " unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things ".

Durkheim defined religion as a clear distinction between the sacred and the profane, in effect this can be paralleled with the distinction between God and humans.

Moore, William James, Henri Bergson, and Émile Durkheim defined their ideas in relation to his.

* the collective conscience as defined by Durkheim is diminished ; and

The beliefs of a religion also reflecting the values are expressed in creeds, dogmas, and doctrines, and form what Durkheim calls a credo.

Durkheim noted long ago that religion as `` a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things unites into one single moral community all those who adhere to them ''.

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system ; however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is " something eminently social ".

Classical, seminal sociological theorists of the late 19th and early 20th century such as Durkheim, Weber, and Marx were greatly interested in religion and its effects on society.

Durkheim, Marx, and Weber had very complex and developed theories about the nature and effects of religion.

In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Durkheim ’ s first purpose was to identify the social origin and function of religion as he felt that religion was a source of camaraderie and solidarity.

Out of those three concepts, Durkheim focused on the sacred, noting that it is at the very core of a religion.

Durkheim saw religion as the most fundamental social institution of humankind, and one that gave rise to other social forms.

Durkheim saw the religion as a force that emerged in the early hunter and gatherer societies, as the emotions collective effervescence run high in the growing groups, forcing them to act in a new ways, and giving them a sense of some hidden force driving them.

However, Durkheim also believed that religion was becoming less important, as it was being gradually superseded by science and the cult of an individual.

However, even if the religion was losing its importance for Durkheim, it still laid the foundation of modern society and the interactions that governed it.

And despite the advent of alternative forces, Durkheim argued that no replacement for the force of religion had yet been created ,.

Durkheim also argued that our primary categories for understanding the world have their origins in religion.

It is religion, Durkheim writes, that gave rise to most if not all other social constructs, including the larger society.

In his work, Durkheim focused on totemism, the religion of the aboriginal Australians and Native Americans.

Durkheim saw totemism as the most ancient religion, and focused on it as he believed its simplicity would ease the discussion of the essential elements of religion.

Durkheim ’ s work on religion was heavily criticized on both empirical and theoretical grounds by specialists in the field.

The most devastating critique came from Durkheim ’ s contemporary, Arnold van Gennep, an expert on religion and ritual, and also on Australian belief systems.

Here, Durkheim outlines how totemism within an Australian aboriginal religion is an example of how collective representations are enacted through religion.

In a 2005 U. S. governmental report, antisemitism is defined as " hatred toward Jews — individually and as a group — that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and / or ethnicity.

In a unanimous 6-0 decision, the Lord's Day Act was ruled an infringement of the freedom of conscience and religion defined in section 2 ( a ) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Roughly stated: are conflicts caused by who people are, whether that be defined in terms of ethnicity, religion or other social affiliation, or do conflicts begin because it is in the economic best interests of individuals and groups to start them?

This principle defined the closed system, and this principle was not a function of one's skin color or religion or economic class.

Charles Baudelaire, in the later, " metaphysical " phase of dandyism defined the dandy as one who elevates æsthetics to a living religion, that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: " Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism " and " These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking ....

In crime and law, hate crimes ( also known as bias-motivated crimes ) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, sex, or gender identity.

Kievan Rus ' is important for its introduction of a Slavic variant of the Eastern Orthodox religion, dramatically deepening a synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next thousand years.

An ' identifiable group ' is defined as ' any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.

If " hate speech " is taken to mean ethnic agitation, it is prohibited in Finland and defined in the section 11 of the penal code, War crimes and crimes against humanity, as publishing data, an opinion or other statement that threatens or insults a group on basis of race, nationality, ethnicity, religion or conviction, sexual orientation, disability, or any comparable basis.

as " the unity of religion and politics, of spirit and nature, of god and man ", qualified by the observation that " man " in the Pagan view is always defined by ethnicity, i. e. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Jew, etc., so that each Pagan tradition is also a national tradition.

Edward Burnett Tylor defined religion as simply " the belief in spiritual beings ".

The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a " system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

The theologian Antoine Vergote also emphasized the " cultural reality " of religion, which he defined as " the entirety of the linguistic expressions, emotions and, actions and signs that refer to a supernatural being or supernatural beings "; he took the term " supernatural " simply to mean whatever transcends the powers of nature or human agency.

In his book ‪ The Varieties of Religious Experience ‬, the psychologist William James defined religion as " the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine ".

Echoes of James ' and Durkheim's definitions are to be found in the writings of, for example, Frederick Ferré who defined religion as " one's way of valuing most comprehensively and intensively ".

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the academic practice of comparative religion divided religious belief into philosophically defined categories called " world religions.

Sectarianism is sometimes defined in the sociology of religion as a worldview that emphasizes the unique legitimacy of believers ' creed and practices and that heightens tension with the larger society by engaging in boundary-maintaining practices.

Some parapsychologists have attempted to establish by scientific experiment whether a soul separate from the brain, as more commonly defined in religion rather than as a synonym of psyche or mind, exists.

According to Article I of the " Rehat Maryada " ( the Sikh code of conduct and conventions ), a Sikh is defined as " any human being who faithfully believes in One Immortal Being ; ten Gurus, from Guru Nanak Dev to Sri Guru Gobind Singh ; Sri Guru Granth Sahib ; the teachings of the ten Gurus and the baptism bequeathed by the tenth Guru ; and who does not owe allegiance to any other religion ".

Also in 1979, in the first revised edition of " Real Magic ", Bonewits defined " thealogy " in his Glossary as " Intellectual speculations concerning the nature of the Goddess and Her relations to the world in general and humans in particular ; rational explanations of religious doctrines, practices and beliefs, which may or may not bear any connection to any religion as actually conceived and practiced by the majority of its members.

In the new constitution, the republic took the name of United Mexican States, and was defined as a representative federal republic, with Catholicism as the official and unique religion.

Our understanding of the world is shaped by social facts ; for example the notion of time is defined by being measured through a calendar, which in turn was created to allow us to keep track of our social gatherings and rituals ; those in turn on their most basic level originated from religion.