How does Emile Durkheim conceptualize religion as a 'social fact' ? Explain. (Answer in 150 words)

- How does Emile Durkheim conceptualize religion as a 'social fact' ? Explain. (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
Durkheim's argument is that religion is not a belief individuals hold but a reality that holds them.

Body

1. What a social fact is: In The Rules of Sociological Method a social fact is a way of acting or thinking external to the individual, coercive over him and general in society, and explicable only by another social fact.
2. How religion meets it: The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life shows religion meeting each test. Its beliefs and rites precede every believer and are obligatory; the sacred-profane division is a collective classification rather than a private sentiment; and among the Arunta the totem is the clan's emblem, so the clan worships itself. Collective effervescence is society felt rather than perceived.
3. What follows for its study: Explanation becomes sociological rather than theological, and the truth of a belief is irrelevant to it. Religion is studied through its function, the periodic remaking of the moral community; Durkheim then derives the categories of thought from social organisation.

Conclusion
A religion explained by its social effects still cannot say why believers find it true.