Din, çeşitli biçimlerde de olsa tarih boyunca insan toplumlarında daima var olmuştur. Bu gerçeklikten hareketle, toplum üzerine düşünce sergileyen pek çok fikir insanı sosyal gereklilik açısından dinin işlevini açıklamak istemişlerdir. Özellikle toplum biliminin öncü ve kurucu babaları olarak kabul edilen insanlar, kuramlarında bu konuya özel bir yer ayırmışlardır. Toplum biliminin öncü babaları arasında bulunan İbn Haldun, sosyal hayatı kaçınılmaz gördüğü kuramında, sosyal hayat oluştuktan sonra toplumu erdeme götürmek için ilahi bir hakikat olarak kabul ettiği dine önemli bir yer vermiştir. Birçok açıdan İbn Haldun'un toplum kurgusuna benzer fikirler ortaya koyan Montesquieu da, sosyal hayatın erdemi için dini gerekli görmüştür. Toplum biliminin son öncü babası olarak ele alınabilecek SaintSimon'un toplum kurgusunda ise, bilimle Tanrı ve bilim insanlarıyla din insanları yer değiştirse de, sosyal hayatın gerekliliği açısında pozitivist bir din gerekli görülmüştür. Saint- Simon'dan sonra sosyolojinin isim babası ve kurucusu olarak önemli bir yere sahip olan Auguste Comte'un pozitivist bir anlayışla şekillendirmeye çalıştığı toplum kurgusunda, yine pozitivist bir dini sosyal gereklilik olarak ele alınmıştır. Toplumda ortaya çıkan her olay ve olguyu mülkiyet ilişkileri içerisinde ele alan ve bir ideoloji olarak dinin ortaya çıkışını da bu ilişkilere bağlayan Karl Marx, komünist düzene geçinceye kadar artı ve eksileriyle kapitalist toplumda bir sosyal olgu ya da bir yanılsama olarak dinin sosyal gereklilik olacağını düşünmüştür. Toplumda ortaya çıkan her olay ve olgu gibi dini de toplum şuuruna bağlayan Emile Durkheim'ın pozitivist toplum kuramında ise din, toplumsal kenetlenme ve ortak idealler için gereklidir. Toplum biliminin kurucu babaları arasında son halkayı temsil eden Max Weber'in anlayıcı toplum kurgusunda din, insan ve toplumun dünyayı düşünme biçimi arasında bağımsız bir değişken olarak ele alınmıştır. Weber, aklileşme ile birlikte dinin toplumda zemin kaybetmesinden de toplumun mutsuz olacağı adına rahatsız olmaktadır. Bütün bu toplum kuramlarından, komün topluma geçilmediği sürece Marx dâhil, dine sosyal bir gereklilik olarak ihtiyaç görüldüğü anlaşılabilmektedir

The records of the known history indicate that there has been no society without a certain type of religion. Religion has always played a major role in shifting the society and sometimes maintaining it. The phenomenon of religion surrounds the social life in many ways, and it has always been dealt by people sometimes as a fact and sometimes as a social necessity. The first written texts on religion belong to the Sumerian period. However, the clues of the avant-garde studies on investigating religious phenomena with a scientific approach dates back to Ancient Greece and specifically to Plato. He established an ideal state or social system, in which everything was measured by the God, and the God was the basis of this system. He also emphasized that ungodliness would subvert the social order and it was necessary to struggle with disbelievers (Platon, 1994: 3098-4001). Centuries after Plato, religion had a central place, either positively or negatively, in the social constructs of the precursors and founding fathers of sociology. They could not ignore religion when explaining the existing society or creating their own social theories. With this regard, this study will examine the need for religion as a social necessity based on the part of religion in the social theories of the precursors and founding fathers of sociology. Since every sociologist has an individual description or understanding of religion, this study did not necessarily make a general description of religion. The study only reflects the individual approaches to religion by the precursors and founding fathers of sociology. The descriptions are limited with the tasks they assign to religion in their social theories in framework of personal approaches to religion. The sociologists to be examined in the study as the precursors and founding fathers of sociology were mainly determined based on the general consent of the world of science. As an independent variable, religion is a fact that is accepted to have always been in the centre of the social life through history. From the Sumerian inscriptions that were the first examples of writing to the opinions of the philosophers of Ancient Greece, it is possible to observe this fact. Although the man became more and more reasonable in the following periods, it was still difficult to build a society that is completely alienated from religion. This study examined the need for religion based on the opinions of the precursors and founding fathers of sociology regarding social necessity, and it was found that they had to create their social theories taking religion into consideration in some way even though they did this to different extents. Ibn Haldun said that social life was inevitable for people (Ibn Haldun, 2004: 79), and he tackled religion as a divine fact which improved the society for the better. In his theory, religion is not a compulsory variable for the construction or maintenance of the social life. However, it is remarkable as an order with a divine origin for the existing society’s or people’s establishing a bond with each other and reaching a better place in peace (Ibn Haldun, 2004: 220). Montesquieu, who put forward opinions that are similar to those of Ibn Haldun’s and regards social life a must for people, accepted religion as a fact and built a connection between religion and society’s living in safety. Furthermore, Montesquieu claimed that religions without a divine origin would be better for the society than ungodliness (Montesquieu, 1998: II., 172). He stated that all beings including the God were subject to a law, and saw the presence of religion in society as a reflection of the initial laws put in force by the God (Montesquieu, 1998: I., 49-50), asserting that religion was a divine necessity for the man and the society. According to Montesquieu, the presence of a disbeliever ruler or societies is undesirable although there are irreligious people. Saint-Simon, who was studied as the final founding father of sociology in this study, built a social construction based on science and industrialism regarding the new altering conditions, and placed a new socialist-positivist religion in the centre of this construction, emphasizing the importance of religion as a social necessity. He claimed that the crises created by social conflicts and social failures in the modern society can only be solved by this new religion which is based on positivism (Durkheim, 1959: 59-63). For this reason, new societies need a new religion that is founded on affection and acts based on scientific facts (Meric, 1996: 148). Comte has a significant place as he founded sociology and named it “sociology” for the first time. He thought that an irreligious society could not exist in the social construction he was trying to shape with a positivist approach, and placed a positivist religion in this construction, which confirmed his former teacher Saint-Simon. He believed that there was a need for a spiritual power that would make the members of the society adapt an earthly power and have a mild temper, also reminding them that the hierarchy of talents did not mean anything compared to the hierarchy of values. The only thing that could replace the technical hierarchy of talents and maybe add an opposite hierarchy of talents was religion that was based on love (Aron, 1996: 89). Karl Marx was another founding father of sociology, and he established religion on the unmerciful property relationships that occurred in different times. In Marx’s social construct, religion was maintained sometimes as a relieving need and sometimes as a numbing need in the capitalist system. However, religion would no longer be a need for the society in the communist system and disappear in the end. Marx anticipated that the mystery in relationships would be solved, and there would no longer be a need for religion, which relieved and also numbed societies in the imperialist systems when the social ideal, that aimed the free unity of producers in harmony with nature, was realized (Marx and Engels, 2008: 62-63). This opinion, which was based on anticipation, was an imaginary thought rather than an experienced practice. Durkheim, who has a very significant part among the founding fathers of sociology and sociology of religion, did not accept religion as a divine fact and made a connection between social consciousness and the roots of religion (Durkheim, 1964: 206). He assigned a major part to religion in his own positivist social construction, and thought that it was, in a descending way though, necessary in social construction. According to Durkheim, religion has been very beneficial in all ages to strengthen social solidarity. It is highly possible that religion will always maintain in different forms as a necessity of being social as long as societies exist (Durkheim, 2005: 504). Weber was the last to be tackled in the study and he represented the final ring of the founding fathers of sociology. He did not make any evaluations about the essence of religion (Fleury, 2009: 67). He built a correlation between the capitalist approach and Protestant ethics, emphasizing the importance of religion and trying to show that this correlation made it visible how the way of thinking about the world (faith) shaped behavior. To him, the world perception of all the societies on earth as well as their cultural or financial states on earth originated from religion. However, he also stated that the modern world got more rationalized and its spell was broken, which led to the fact that the influence of religion on society got weaker. Still, religion will maintain its presence although it was pushed to the depths of human conscience because religion is a necessity for social peace. This study tackled religion based on the theories of the precursors and founding fathers of sociology regarding its social necessity. The study concluded that the theories except for the anticipation of Marx accepted religion as an obligation regarding social necessities and the benefit of society. In general, the precursors and founding fathers of sociology studied religion as an independent variable. It was observed that religion has a very important function in society’s perception of the world they live in, creation of the cultural life and providing social unity.