Additionally, religion is one of the issues of grave intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean. Religion is also one of societal institution based on the systems of beliefs, rituals ad practices that give people’s lives meaning. Religion affects lives as a conservative force linked largely with positive values. For example: As Christian worship in the region has historically been associated with perserving social life in keeping with accepting norms and values. According to the conflict theory, religion reinforces and promotes social inequality and social conflict. This helps convince the proletariats to accept their fate in life and it can lead to hostility and violence which is motivated by the religious difference; it also justifies oppression amongst the proletariats. The conflict theory viewed religion as a tool of social control used by the bourgeoisie or the elites to maintain the status quo in a certain society. This indicates that there is an unequal status quo between the bourgeoisie and the proletariats where the bourgeoisie uses religion to keep things in it’s current state while opposing to the state things that could’ve been such as changes in social structure and values.

Conflict theorists sees religion as a smokescreen imposed and controlled by the bourgeoisie as a mean to blind the proletariats to an oppressed state. For example: Many people who lives in lower classes and living in poverty tend to view their ill-fate in religious terms. They believe that it’s God’s will that they are poor and living in poverty and he is testing their fate in “HIM”. Hence they endure the suffering hoping they are rewarded if not this life but in the afterlife.

It is argued by the functionalist that religion itself serves as a function of teaching the people what is right and what is wrong. For example: Many law systems are made up of the religious morals where religion promotes value. According to the sociologist Talcott Parsons, who argued that religion is used to maintain social order in times of social changes and help an individual to make sense of the inevitable situations. For example: A person who is undergoing a life crisis such as a death in the family or death of a loved one, a funeral service is held which will bring peope together to comfort one another. Functionalist also argues that religion is used to past on norms and values of society from one generation to the next. Sociologist have argued that religion is functional in guiding behaviour since it outlines the rewards and punishments. For example: The church teaches that a person who commits sins are most likely to go to hell after they die as punishment for their bad deeds and an act against ‘GOD’ while a person who does acts of kindness will be rewarded for their good deeds and will most likely go to heaven in the afterlife.