This paper compares how Marx and Durkheim relate to
religion through their
writings. It shows how in his "Selected Writings",
Karl Marx devotes much of his early text to the study of
religion, essentially regarding it as a false notion which contributes to the alienation of man from himself. On the other hand, Emile Durkheim's "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" approaches religion from a more purely sociological perspective, examining religion as a tool which may endow individuals with a means for conceiving of and relating to the society in which they live.