Introduction 3
Literature review 4
Conclusion 10
Reference 15
Introduction
Any given society is made up human beings. Sociology is a social science that deal with the study of how these human beings interacts amongst themselves, causes of their interaction, and the results of these human interactions. In sociology, human beings are defined as social beings. Social life revolves around several components that can be used to explain how a society operates and exists. The three major of these components are the social structures, social interaction, and the social institutions. Different societies have different cultures, norms, and beliefs. In order to understand how the societies differentiate, it is important to first understand the three components (social structures, social interaction, and the social institutions) of the diverse societies.
Social structure reflects the interests, norms, roles and organization of members of a society which enables them to continue with their day to day activities. The social interactions define the ways in which people of different ages, sexes, social classes, and with different beliefs stay together in a society. It entails issues such as conflict since differentiation in any society is the major reason behind any conflict. Social institutions are mechanisms a society comes up with so as to regulate the behavior of individuals in that society. Social institution also acts as social support structures that enable a human being live in a society. Family, for instance, is the basic social structure of any society. The father (or the guardian) is the head of the family and regulates the behavior of the family members.
Family members also get financial and moral support from their fellow family members.
Religion is another major form of a social institution. This is because it makes people in a society have beliefs and values. This regulated their behaviors. Therefore, religion is a social institution as it helps different societies meet their basic needs.
The Dialogue Institute of the Southwest is a non-profit organization that was started in 2002. Its main agenda is to explain how people from different societies from all over the
The institute gives an insight look into different religions so as to understand their religions so as to understand their beliefs and tries to form a common ground for the different religions. The internship at the dialogue institute of the southwest will involve doing the research and find out how people of different religions live together in a different society and come up with measures that can be taken to enhance the peaceful co-existence between members of different religions.
Purpose statement: The internship period at the Dialog Institute of Southwest will focus on figuring out the statistics of different cultures across different nations of the world. The Dialog institute of Southwest deals with statistical data of the distribution religion in different religions of the globe. This is because some countries are; Islamic, Hindu and Christian. Hence focus will be on figuring out the origin of distribution, whether migration or people were influenced by ancestors. Also, there will be emphasis on figuring out what are the differences in beliefs in beliefs in the religions. This is particularly on figuring out the contradicting beliefs which are the main reasons for the various conflicts. To get the correct results that are accurate the research will focus on other resources of conflict and find out which religions could be the main sources of conflict due to what it preaches to its congregation.
The last phase of the research purpose will be on the causes of social cohesion in the religious integrated societies. This is in recognition that in the modern societies, even with the people from different religions, there is still a peaceful co-existence. This peaceful co-existence can be due to laws which govern how people are supposed to interact with others, or education where the majority number of people have been educated and know better ways of solving of conflict.
Literature review
The research reviews different literatures to help generate accurate findings which can contribute to the broad topic of religion. The literature review section will adopt different themes to help in providing organized flow of the discussions as discussed below. The research will seek to find out from the literature review the following; how people with different cultures and religion co-habit peacefully in the same society because they have been enlightened on the importance of peace even with their different backgrounds and beliefs. In particular, interest is on understanding how non-enlightened societies with people from different backgrounds with different religious beliefs interact with each other.
Introduction of religion in some regions of the United States changed the way of life of the people of the country and especially the family life of the people of that era. (Edgel, 2006) religious congregations have responded to alteration in family life and how different members of the family participate in the local religion. Some families hold to the old ways of their fathers` religion while others adapt to the changing existence has several benefits. This gives people a chance to work together for the economic benefit. An example is a business person from one religion must interact peacefully with individuals from all other religious beliefs in his/her business to be successful. Hence, peaceful interaction between people of different religious beliefs creates a suitable environment for people to continue with their daily activities. Lack of interaction might result to religious conflict which, in the modern society is usually solved by war. War has adverse effects, therefore the enlightened people with different religious beliefs will choose to interact and relate peacefully rather than to polarize and for barriers since the beneficial factors of the pervious outweighs those of the latter.
Enlightenment has also brought things like equality, liberty, and social justice among the modern institutions. Authors go ahead and describe what they think the societies would be without enlightenment. Zafirovski’s work provides a historic overview of pre-enlightened societies, discusses the enlightened societies, and postulates how post-enlightened societies would look like. Enlightment is a major component in understanding how people with different cultures and religion co-habit peacefully in the same society because they have been enlightened on the importance of peace even with their different backgrounds and beliefs. The research will therefore seek to understand how the non-enlightened society with people from different backgrounds and have different religious beliefs will interact with each other.
Introduction of religion in some regions of the United States changed the way of life of the people of the country and especially the family life of the people of that era. Edgell gives an insight look into the ways in which religious congregations have responded to alteration in family life and how different member of the family participate in the local religion. Some families hold to the old ways of their fore-fathers religion while others adapt to the changing trends. Some religions also give each and every individual freedom to choose on which spiritual life to take. However, others restrict it members and do not allow them to go against their religion whatsoever. These religions have great penalties for those who go against what their scriptures say they should do. Edgell also explains that men, women, and children are viewed differently and have different roles in their religion. Generally, however, men were believed to view congregation as social support structures. Women, on the other hand, were more indulged into the religious experience (Edgell, 2006).
The non-religious individuals in the society and secular people form a good portion of people in the society, and they are discussed as people in a single religion as they have their own beliefs and alter the society in a number of ways (Pollack & Olson, 2012) They also interact with people from the other religions hence affect the interaction of people of different religions.
Turner explains how religion is a core social aspect that the way of life of people in a society. The Islam religion categorically has been in the lime light in the recent years. People are looking closely into the ways of life of Islams. The rise of modern secular societies, Turner states, that is as a result of multi-faith and multicultural societies. When a society cannot define how all its inhabitants are expected to behave and what to believe, there is a group of individuals that will find no religion to believe in hence the development of the secularization. In addition to this, Turner also talks about religion rivalry, feminism, the rise of spirituality among the youth, and the communication revolt. Politicians are from different religions, and they sometimes divide along religious lines when arguing about some ideologies. Turner completed his book by stating that modernization of societies is eroding religions. This in turn leads to rise in new religions. However, these new religions are not strong enough to form social cohesion and repair.
He elaborates on an important topic that is subject of discussion at the Dialogue
The purposes of religion and religious institutions are said to be: to bring social cohesion, to encourage social development in societies, and acts as a source of social capital formation (Gräb and Charbonnier, 2014).
Social exchange theory explains that people with different cultures and religious beliefs will interact if they have common ideologies. People with a similar mind set will most likely get along well. Most religions have the same preaching. Most of them will explain that a superior supernatural being is the source of their divinity. They also encourage their congregation to live in harmony and do well to one another. Most religions preach of consequences for every action on earth and that good deeds will be rewarded well in the world of supernatural where people go after they die. They also state that wrong doings will be seriously punished. Religion, therefore, makes people have the same ideologies hence relate well towards one another.
Data collection tools will focus on collecting both primary and secondary data for the research. However, the available resources at the Dialog Institute of Southwest will guide the research in relation to understanding the different religions that co-exist in peace and harmony, based on the previous researches conducted showing the religions existing on the earth`s surface. The research will also combine use of both quantitative and qualitative data, the Institute will however, be of great importance in getting this data from the available databases they have generated overtime.
Other than the secondary data, primary data for the research will majorly make use of pre-written questionnaires to collect information from individuals of different religions. Also, the primary data collected will be of great importance in confirming arguments from the pieces of literature and those made from the pre-existing data.
For effective data analysis the research will use a table that will show the overlapping ideologies of a different religion and those that differ. The table will particularly be of help in deducing the similarities and differences between religions and the sacrifices they make in maintaining a peaceful co-existence.
Through a serious of analysis to the available data different religions, the research will aim to provide findings on the roles religions play in maintaining a peaceful co-existence in the modern society other than disintegrating it as other people might argue. In relation to this the research will also demonstrate the role of institutions using the case of the Dialog Institute of Southwest in promoting peaceful co-existence between people of different religions. This is from the different projects the institute has done to promote peace. An example of the project undertaken by the Institute is the peace garden which is a beautiful garden where the worship buildings of all the religions have been erected. The region is supposed to promote interfaith dialog and communication hence promote interfaith peace.
Reference
Edgell, P. (2006). Religion and family in a changing society. Princeton University Press.
Gräb, W., & Charbonnier, L. (Eds.). (2014). The Impact of Religion on Social Cohesion,
Social Capital Formation and Social Development in Different Cultural Contexts
(Vol. 4). LIT Verlag Münster.
Pollack, D., & Olson, D. V. (Eds.). (2012). The role of religion in modern societies.
Routledge.
Turner, B. S. (2011). Religion and modern society: Citizenship, secularisation and the state.
Cambridge University Press.
Zafirovski, M. (2010). The enlightenment and its effects on modern society. Springer.
