Let me begin with Durkheim's methodological principle that
the sociologist should always take the words
of the people he studies very seriously.
Even if they tell you about an experience that seems to be very irrational or
even crazy at first sight, do not doubt their honesty.
The experience that they tell you about is a deep reality for them.
So, if you notice for example, that somebody treats seemingly
very ordinary object with strange kind of awe and
reverence, try to understand what is going on there.
Don't mock the Aboriginal who seems to be strangely impressed
by what appears to be an ordinary stone on the ground.
Don't react with a smile when a Catholic prays to a small wooden statue.
Don't criticize a patriotic citizen who experiences genuine
pain when he sees that his flag is burned.
Try to understand them.
Try to imagine what their world must be like for them.
And then the first thing you may notice is that the stone, the statue,
the flag, are, in their eyes, no ordinary everyday object.
They are different.
They are set apart.
They are charged with a special energy.
Durkheim says that for those people there is a clear distinction
between the profane and the sacred, between the mundane, everyday world and
the religious world, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.
If you ask religious person what it is that she or
he experiences when they participate in a religious ritual, or
when they are confronted with an object that they believe to be sacred,
then they of course have to search for words first.
But then, they will eventually come up with an answer that they can feel a kind
of power, something that at the same time frightens them and also comforts them.
It can be frightening at times because it's a power that forces them to
do certain things and to refrain from other things.
And if you do not obey you may be punished.
So it's a coercive force, but it's also a source of strength
because in times of grief and distress it will support you and comfort you.
You can rely on it.