Abstract:

The ancient solidarity between self-power and science is once again manifested in the 19th and 20th centuries with the aim of building a national state and society. Nationalist powers take a great deal of advantage of science to build society as a homogeneous integrity. This study, which evaluates the services offered by science in the process of building a national Turkish society through such a context, reflects how the Turkish nationalist elites have disfunctioned the people's religion using the scientific paradigms. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim attempts to demonstrate that the manipulation of the scientific theories, exaggeration and sometimes neglecting the most vital points of the theory, is made possible, in the context of this purpose, is focused on the work of two nationalist thinkers, Ziya Gökalp and Mehmet Fuad Bridge, who were deeply influenced by Durkheim. The work of these nationalist intellectuals through the method of text analysis aims to reveal a series of scientific manipulations that work towards religion and religious culture in the creation of nationalist society. In the plan of the study, discussing the relationship with power science in the first part, the role of the intellectuals in this process will be put forward. In the following section, the relationship between science and power in the Turkish political life will be analyzed as the nationalist ideas of the two-nationalist intellect, which is called, are intertwined with science.In the third and last part, the theoretical interpretations of Durkheim will be discussed as the manipulation and excessive interpretations arise when interpreting the popular religion and religious public culture are disfunctional.Anahtar words: People's religion, nationalism, scientific manipulation, Ziya Gökalp, Mehmet Fuad.