Religion's Effects

I agree with Weijia. It is true that religion plays a vital part in society, and helps individuals to abide by a social contract, in a sense, as it tells people to be good people. Religion also plays a huge role in the law, in the sense of trusting/ taking oaths. It also causes boundaries in society with conflict of opinion. An example for Muslim women, like Weijia used, is women's rights. People condemn Islam when it comes to women's liberty because they choose to cover. Liberty is perceived differently in society, for example, a Muslim woman's view on liberty is perceived as oppression by the other. What about the individual's who don't believe in religion? Where do they fit in for Durkheim?

Considering your question Namra, I think Durkhiem would say those who are not religious and therefore do not share the collective consciousness will be people on the fringes who don't belong to society. However, we can argue that this is from his time period where religion was a key regulator of society. In modern day the impact of religion is less than before and we can say that non-religous people form their own collective consciousness that determine how they think, act and go about their lives; in this way they would still fit into Durkheim.

Can anyone think of other forms of collective consciousness that have "deviated from the norm" to form their own set of ideals? One I can think about is the LGBT community.

I would agree with what Nicole has to say above but it could also be that even if you don't believe in religion per say that you're still influenced by that collective consciousness. In his piece, "the cultural logic of collective presentations" he says "...of reaching individual consciousness of giving them a direction and of discipling them", it could be that religion is an overarching thing that is there to kind of be our guide. While I do agree with what is said above where those are aren't religious will be alienated in this time frame, but I believe that in terms of personal ideas that they might still be influenced and they might still believe in a self consciousness. It is said that "he transformed and consequently he transforms the environment that surrounds him" so maybe it is possible that it is all just a burgeoning system. If we don't have individuals who are outliers then we would have a stagnant society in a way.