Compare and contrast how Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber viewed the role of religion in society. Which is most compatible with your point of view and why?
What will be an ideal response?
Karl Marx argued that religion is a response to the alienation people feel in the real world and therefore cannot be the basis for social change. Max Weber argued that religion helped create different types of societies, but that over time all societies became less religious and more rational. Religion played a central role in Emile Durkheim's work. He believed that religion was the basis of collective conscience and that societies create rituals that serve to symbolize important beliefs and values. Student answers will vary on their point of view but should be clearly linked to the ideas of the theorist they selected.
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