Food For Thought

"We must strive for tolerance. Tolerance of others beliefs and cultures."

I have been hearing that a lot. But tolerance may prove to be somewhat elusive. We must be able to accept other peoples' beliefs. That is the very nature of a people, of a society. A belief system is by its definition a very powerful force in a person's life. In some ways it is what makes them who they are. We must acknowledge that belief, that characteristic. We must allow it to flourish and coexist with our own belief system. This is important. This creates an important dilemma.

I will leave you with that thought and this….Does tolerance of other people's faiths or beliefs trivialize our own? If we acknowledge others as having a right to believe or worship as they do does that diminish our own? It is a narrow and difficult path to walk.

Some quotes on tolerance:

"No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen." --Wendell L. Willkie

"Tolerance. I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision." --George Eliot

"Tolerance comes with age. I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other. "--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"People are very open-minded about new things--as long as they're exactly like the old ones. "--Charles F. Kettering

"Tolerance is another word for indifference." --W. Somerset Maugham

"Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow's too lazy to form an opinion." --Will Rogers
"It is easy to be tolerant of the principles of other people if you have none of your own. "--Herbert Samuel

"Tolerance is the oil which takes the friction out of life." --Wilbert E. Scheer

Update: This was actually a small part, notes really, of a larger essay that I started writing in 2001. It is still in work. I am such a lazy writer. Someday maybe.
D.