REM's Losing My Religion: An Analsysis

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for not following the religious values set upon him/her. Coincedently values is the next concept to be explored in this essay. With every religion there is a set od values to be followes and respected or else he/she must face the consequences. The final concept is anomie for the simple fact that without religion some people would have no direction in life and therefore be in a state of anomie or confusion. On the other hand those who choose to sacrifice religious values for other values may also find themselve in a state of anomie.
Religious analysis is a vey complex topic that has been studied for centuries. In sociological terms religion is defined as a "set of beliefs, symbols and practices which is based on the idea of the sacred and which unites believers into a socio-religious community.(Marshall,1994: pg.447) Community is the important word in that definition because one of religion's functions as defined by Emile Durkheim is to promote social cohesion by bringing a ...

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would all be religious because whether we belive in a god or not we all have conformed to the norms and values ofm the society we live in. One of Durkheim's fears was that as religion became less and less important in society, society would eventually destroy itself because it would reach a stae of anomie or normlessness. Durkheim believed that modern society had reached a stae in which the gaining of money and power had overcome religious meaning and taken away the idea of a "human community."( Macionis,et al, 1994: pg. 464) However there is another side of religion as seen through the eyes of Karl Marx. According to Marx religion is "an ideology that serves ruling elites by ...

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