Civil Religion

The founding father of Functionalist Sociology, Durkheim, believed that religion was not worship of a divine being, rather worship of society. The shared norms and values in day to day life, he noted, form the basis of what is 'good' religion. He feared however, that with the breakdown of religious singularity, the world would fall into a state of 'anomie', meaning normlessness, no shared ideas and goals. He did however suggest that Nationalism and Communism would replace traditional religion as the platform for worship of society, though he did not see them as a real substitute.

Karl Marx himself called religion the "opium" of the people and believed that the rise of communism would mean the end of religion as a utopian society would then exist.

Now, in post-modernity (the current state of society), we are posed with a slight problem. There is definite religious plurality, both traditional and new religious movements are open to all and most states are truly secular. (The only noteworthy exception being Britain, which while not officially secular like America, has notably less religiosity.) On top of that, society can hardly be seen as 'utopian', so how, if Durkheim was right, do we still function?

Later Functionalist Sociologist has coined the term 'civil religion', the shared overt worship of certain aspects of society as opposed to a god. Examples of this can be seen all around, the American pledge of alligance to the flag promotes national unity and a shared concept of belonging for example. (As did the same thing in Nazi Germany, though that could spring a different debate, it was used to create a feeling of unity amongst citizens of Germany in such a radically changing time after the fall of the Weimar Republic).

But it's not just national institutions that could amount to 'civil religion'. Fandom often leads to a feeling of unity between fans, such as football fans in the UK. What team you support can sometime go as far as to dictate your social group. Despite this, each group in theory should share the same values of sportsmanship and team play.

So in effect, it's believed that involvement in various parts of society replaces the role that religion had at one point.

What do you think? Will civil religion ever overtake conventional religion in its importance? Is it not a new phenomenon, rather something that has existed through the ages? Does civil religion even exist at all?

This stuff fascinates me and I thought it would be a nice change from the endless talk of if god exists or not.