Social Norms and Religious Belief

It may seem odd to bring up the topic of religious belief in connection with sociology in any way other than to examine examples of specific norms advocated by particular religious traditions. But that is exactly what I intend to do here. My title should be taken in the broadest possible sense. It means to raise the question of how, in general, religious beliefs impact our concepts of social norms of all types. And I will say right off that my answer to that question is that some religious belief or other invariably controls and regulates any and every theory of any and every social norm. In large part, this is because a religious belief can exercise its control while remaining an unconscious presupposition to theories every bit as much as when it is a conscious, fervent commitment. (And, yes, this means that every social theory assumes some such belief whether it advocates admit it or not!)