Abstract

Religion as a general phenomenon is found in every human society around the globe. Religion is the most important institutional structures that make up the total unifying social system. This is true in the words of Idowu that Yorùbá are in all things religious. Religion is the source of morality and public order. It is the source of the inner peace of the individual persons and a civilizing factor. However, the overall interest in religion in the world has damaged what religion really is and what it means through intolerance, particularism and hatred. There are crises everywhere, particularly between foreign religions in the land as a result of this. This has created a great difference between religion in practice and the word “religion” that clearly shows the fact that it is not everyone who talks about religion that knows what religion is all about. In most cases, appearance has been taken for realty. Despite all these however, the level of tolerance among the Yorùbá religion calls for attention that other religious bodies could emulate and allow peace to reign. This is the reason why this paper reflected on it as a recipe for peaceful co-existence among other religious groups in Yorùbáland, in particular and in Nigeria in general. The paper was interview based where 10 Christians, 10 Muslims and 10 Yorùbá indigenous religious practitioners were interviewed and their views content analysed. The study viewed that beyond extreme tolerance, no peaceful coexistence can materialize in a pluralistic society like Nigeria

Keywords

Yorùbá, Religion, Tolerance, Adherents, Peaceful Co-existence