Religion refers to a set of attitudes related to temperament, rationale as well as reason for cosmos. When considered to be the formation of phenomenal organization or an agency, these attitudes concerning custom observances over and over again have an ethnical policy through the behavior of relationship between individuals (Appiah, 2006).
The term religion can also be described as the basic set of way of life as well as practice that is normally settled upon by a given number of persons or divisions. This kind of divisions may include both Buddhists as well as Christian religions.
Appiah starts describing religion as the part that has a number of roles in a community. Some of the major roles of the religion is to direct people on the basic morals. In the community where he grew up he describes the part played by the religions that existed.
He brings out the role of Muslims as well as the role of Christians in the region. The members in his community were Christian who had come in earlier as missionaries before the Muslims came.
Appiah talks about a great difference between the two religions that are, the Muslims and Christians; they had different way of thinking as well as behavior.
For instance, the cosmopolitans who were Christians could allow women who were almost naked, to go swimming with strange women. This was not in any way allowed in Muslims and was seen as an evil behavior.
The Christians urged that there is no point nowadays to restrict what people feel is right for them since the Internet makes it possible for everyone to access any information they want and need.
It will be more difficult to restrict the girls who will be tempted to long for liberty. The Muslims, therefore, felt that it was not right that the Christians started to emphasize on the manner in which people were expected to behave towards the Muslims.
Appiah felt that those in religious positions ought to have a connection with one another as well as with the non religious people as everyone has something to learn from the other and this would be determined if they are ready to engage in a discussion.
This is one of the responsibilities of the leaders so that they may be in a position to understand other people’s opinions (Kenneth, 1985).
In his article, he says that there is need to have a religion that will put into consideration the needs of each and every individual in the community as the role of the religion is to guide human beings in the moral ways and not to force the people to fit in what the religious people feel.
Appiah claims that he obtained his fundamental morals form Sunday school he attended and from his parents as well. Thus, it might be that in the community these are not only the religious people who have duty to input the moral value to others in a community but it is the responsibility of every member.
Despite the fact that the religion aims at passing only the right moral values to the society, Appiah claims that the moral values he brought up with, were inappropriate and hence he ended up not adhering to some of these.
As a Christian he strongly feels that each of us has accountability for the others and that we ought to be alarmed for each others’ destiny. To put stress on this, Appiah feels that there are numerous things that champions of Islam are glad to put up with.
The Islam heroes in the community are brought out as the ones who are not concerned with what one feeds provided that the animal product is halal. By this he describes the Islamic leaders as one of those who aims at specific goals in a community (Roger, 2008).
He also describes the Christian leaders as those who emphasize on a specific way people should behave; this is the right one in which people are expected to live, thus, creating a great divergence between the Islamic and the Christian people.
Appiah also feels that religious conviction ought to form the basis of thoughts concerning both metaphysics and ethics. In addition to this, religion should be in a position to answer most of people’s every day questions such as, who created a human being, how the cosmos came into being as well as what the planet is all about among others (Senior, 2008).
This would help come up with answers to most of people who until today have never attained any answer to all these issues. The religion leader should ensure that they come up with a concrete answers to some of these questions so as to fulfill their responsibility to people.
The religion has the role of assisting people on the right spiritual traditions to follow since most of people are not able to decide which one to leave.
Appiah puts it across that most of the moral values are learnt when we are young, as a consequence, at one’s tender age it is difficult to chose between the good and the bad. This is the reason why he feels it is the role of these religion leaders to guide people on what path to take (Senior, 2008).
On the other hand, Appiah feels that people ought to be obligated to subsist with the observations that they have as there is no specific answer to some of the questions that people have.
He urges that populace are supposed to focus on these views, carry investigations as well as reflect on them and maybe disapprove them (Roger, 2008).
It happens so due to the fact that no matter how one tries to have some views on the religion issues, he or she will end up having views that will be different from others. Thus, he recommends that one should live with his or her views no matter how different they are from others.
My approach is similar to Appiah’s one since I also feel that on matters concerning religion, people should be free to believe in what they feel is right for them; and nobody should force one to think differently.
The religion roles are the major determinants of what people believe in as well as how they live their lives (Appiah, 2006). Thus, the religious leaders should aim at directing individuals on the right path to follow as well as the moral values that are helpful to these people without forcing them to make their choice.
Those in religious positions should also ensure that they come up with concrete answers to the major questions as they also help in creating good morals among people.
According to my approach, it is important that a person takes in that different people will always come up with diverse arguments in regards to some significant questions.
The religion should not at any point determine how and what people think concerning some of these religious issues but should instead take time to guide them on the right moral values and leave it for them to decide on what is good for them. The religion ought not to interfere with citizens’ rights as well as their customs but instead it should help them improve them.
In conclusion, the moral values are what govern the way people live and, therefore, it is crucial that these values are properly put across so as people can have a common way of life without having to reinforce certain believes on them.
This will help individuals perceive the right from the wrong (Kenneth, 1985). According to Appiah, the religion has specific roles in a community; hence, it’s the responsibility of the leaders to ensure that the various roles are accomplished in the right way. Without the proper ethical values being employed, there is a possibility of the religion experiencing disappointments and, hence, the main aims will not be met.
References
Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 2006, Moral Disagreement and Kindness to Strangers, London: Blackwell Publishers.
Kenneth K ,1985, The Political Morality of Race, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rogers, K, 2008, Education for Global Citizenship, The Age Melbourne.
Senior, B, 2008, Experiments in Ethics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press