Emile Durkheim believed that social life was impossible without the shared values and moral beliefs that form the collective conscience. In their absence, there would be no social order, social control, social solidarity or cooperation. In short, there would be no society. Religion reinforces the collective conscience.

According to Durkheim, religious ritual is an important part of this social cement. Religion, through its rituals, fulfills a number of social functions such as binding people together physically, promoting social cohesion, reaffirming the group’s beliefs and values. Those functions help maintain norms, mores, and prohibitions.

Durkheim is generally considered the first sociologist who analyzed religion in terms of its societal impact. Above all, he believed religion is about community: It binds people together (social cohesion), promotes behavior consistency (social control) and offers strength during life’s transitions and tragedies (meaning and purpose).

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. The arguments in the options I, II and III were developed by Durkheim in order to emhasize the functions of religion. The arguments in the options IV and V are the arguments of conflict theory on religion developed by Marx.

Marx saw religious belief as an illusion attempting to justify existing arrangements in society and encouraging people to accept them. He saw religion doing this in two ways. First, religion justifies existing inequalities in income and power in society by explaining the position on the rich and poor as “the will of God”. For example, the Hindu religion provides a religious justification for the inequalities of the Indian caste system, and the Bible is riddled with quotations such as ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven’. Poverty and resignation to it therefore become, in themselves, virtues. As a result, the poor are more likely to accept their position in society. Second, Marx believed religion provided comfort for the poor, and drew their attention away from their present misery and the inequalities and injustices of this world with promises of a future, golden life after death.