Church, state and doing what comes naturally

[jwcpgh]

> Naama wrote:
> Of course Christianity is intolerant -  as an exclusive religion 
(such as Judaism and Islam) it has to be. 
> 
Dave Witley responded:
<snip> 
> For many, if not most, Christians, Christianity is a revealed 
> religion, which means inter alia that it contains statements that 
> are accepted as true by its followers, and true in the sense that 
> opposite of those statements must be false.
> 
> This means that, for many Christians, it is a corollary of their 
> faith that some other people are wrong in their beliefs.  I 
believe the same is broadly true of Judaism and Islam <snip>.

Laura:

it depends on what you mean by "intolerant".  If a person holds a 
belief, then it follows that he will reject as incorrect any belief 
that is inconsistent with his own.  I don't think that's intolerant 
per se; tolerance has to do with how able you are to live and let 
live.  

Judaism rejects outright any belief system that isn't monotheistic.  
Our texts are pretty hard on pagans-I'm taking a class on Prophets 
and it's pretty bloody.  The Jews-on God's orders- slaughter whole 
cities down to the last animal.  Funny, we didn't learn this stuff 
in Sunday school...Anyhow, we don't expect everyone to be Jewish, 
nor do we actively seek converts.  What we advocate for is 
monotheism and adherence to a basic set of broad ethical behaviors.  
We recognize that there will be differences in the ways that 
different groups pray and engage in ritual practice.  That's not a 
problem, Jewishly speaking.  

I myself am not fond of the term "tolerance" in the first place.  
There's a theologian named Stephen Carter (I think he's at Harvard) 
who wrote in one of his books that the word implies the power to 
allow or disallow others to exist.  That is, if we can decide to be 
tolerant, we can also decide to be intolerant and persecute those 
who don't believe or act as we do.  Instead, I think we should use 
the word "respect" or some other term that suggests more of a moral  
imperative and less of a power exercise.  I don't feel that I have a 
choice whether or not to "tolerate" others; they have the same right 
to their beliefs as I do.  

Dave wrote:
 <snip> 
> Now there are two very peculiar characteristics of human beings 
that come into play here.  The first is that many people, when they 
are told by somebody else that something they believe is incorrect, 
they feel persecuted.  The second is that when they see somebody 
> believing something incorrect they feel that it is worth trying 
the use of force to change the other's mind.
<snip>

Laura:

I think these reactions come from fear and ignorance-I've found that 
the more knowledgeable and secure you are in your own beliefs, the 
less threatened you feel by those that are different than yours.  

As a species, our intellects have far outstripped our instincts, 
sadly.