Religion has been codified in the profession as a whole because of excesses of corporate greed

It is necessary to analyze the religious thoughts of sociologists such as Yinger, Durkheim, Weber, Radcliffe-Brown, and Marx because of the fact that these sociologists have made great contributions to the sociology of religion (Hamilton, 1995). It will contribute to understanding how they build their ideas about religion. Therefore, comparative discussion of the writings of these sociologists on religion should be the main point of any researches in the sociology of religion. It will be only a part of the study which is related to sociologists discussed above. Interpretation of the study must be another part of the research which is attributed to definitions of religion. The categories will be formed by functionalist theorists such as Durkheim, Yinger and Radcliffe-Brown; intellectualists such as Marx, Freud, Feuerbach and Weber. Thoughts of these sociologists on religion will be analyzed in light of their studies and sources. Max Weber is acknowledged as a rationalist theory by some sociologists because of the fact that he develops the theory of rational action which refers to human action in social life. Freud is an intellectualist psychologist; however, his studies are relevant to sociology as well. Cognitive processes of the human mindset are formed by interaction with society according to him. Durkheim who is a fundamentalist in the context of religion and its bonds with society is acknowledged as a functionalist. Functionalism can be defined that religion is not a product of the human mindset but a product of society. Durkheim believed that religion and society are intertwined by means of social norms, cultural patterns and religious practices (Durkheim, 2012).