Non-religious ideas: Durkheim

• What does Durkheim believe conscience is?

  Sanctions or social conditioning
• What does Durkheim believe about God and conscience?

  Conscience is social conditioning - the sanctions that the group brings to bear on the individual. For Durkheim, God is society, God does not exist but is a useful idea. God is a projection of society's powers and a belief in God gives individuals a moral obligation to obey society's demands.
• What does Durkheim say about having a guilty conscience?

  Having a guilty conscience about the food you eat is your fear of society judging you for being too thin or fat
• What does Durkheim believe about a collective conscience?

  The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average citizens in the same society. Within this context, an act is socially bad simply because society disapproves of it