CROWTHER JOURNAL OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

This paper examines the positive and negative functions of religion in Nigerian society. Nigeria is a pluralist society with three religions-African Traditional Religion, Islam and Christianity. Since no particular religion is officially recognized as state religion, it is expected that the three religions should co-exist side by side on the same environment without friction. Despite this, the three religions conflicts among themselves sometimes resulting in killings, verbal assaults, intimidation, open confrontation, destruction of worshipping centers and indiscriminate destruction of religious objects, emblems and shrines due to differences in religious beliefs and practices. In spite of this, religion on the other still binds people together and invigorates; that is, it gives them a strong sense of social solidarity and obligation. The study relied on secondary sources. The study adopted historical and phenomenological approaches to ascertain the curative factors to religious differences and to describe the usefulness of religion. Findings reveal that though religion sometimes can cause chaos but at the same time it stabilizes the society. The study recommends that religious leaders at all levels should encourage their followers/adherents to cultivate the values of forgiveness, tolerance, peace, love and truth so as to facilitate the practice of religion in a pluralistic society like Nigeria.

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