SONGSOPTOK: To what extent do you practice ‘religious tolerance’?
Since when (how long ago)?
STEPHEN STONE: First, allow me to express my appreciation
to Songsoptok for this opportunity. My name is Stephen Stone. I am a
forty-eight year old man, currently living in the United States.
Professionally, I am a manufacturing mechanic and plumber, while privately, I
am a published poet. I consider myself a lifelong student of many things,
Religion being at the top of that list, I have studied most of the current text
available. I should also state that I am more a humanist and a realist
believing religion is more a frame of mind and a lifestyle and that, despite
what one may believe, we are first and foremost, one humanity.Inline image
I believe I’ve always been tolerant, though as I have
aged and my understanding of the world and religions around me have developed,
I have become more so.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you believe all religions are the same?
STEPHEN STONE: Yes in that, they all require a measure of
blind faith and a requisite lifestyle, conformity to ones beliefs.
SONGSOPTOK: In case
you practice religion, do you consider all your religious beliefs to be true?
What about those of others?
STEPHEN STONE: Religion, I believe isn’t a practice, it’s
something you live, as I mentioned before, a lifestyle. I believe we are one
humanity, with many interpretations of the same story. As far as truth is
concern, as I mentioned before, religion requires some measure of blind faith.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you
believe that all faiths are equally beneficial and equally harmless to society?
STEPHEN STONE:
No, I don’t. To some degree, I believe the opposite to be true. Look at the strife
on this planet for hundreds of years, created by the differences of beliefs
from Rome and beyond to modernity.
SONGSOPTOK: Do you
believe all religious groups are equally beneficial and equally harmless to
their followers?
STEPHEN STONE: Again, no I don’t. One has but to look at the
current state of affairs around the planet to see the damage blind faith to the
extreme can bring. Additionally, in the United States, it seems a lot of fancy
facilities of worship being built, while so many followers go hungry. I often
wonder what happened to pauper oaths.
SONGSOPTOK: Should
members of any given religious group refrain from criticizing religious
practices of others?
STEPHEN STONE: Yes, if we first believe we are one humanity,
who is one to criticize another for the way they live or believe. Experience
breeds belief and unless you share in the experience how you can consider
yourself fit to pass judgment?
SONGSOPTOK: Do you
usually refrain from talking about your beliefs to others? Should you be
ignoring your own religious ideas?
STEPHEN STONE: Actually, I do. I find to few open minded
enough to have read much more than one religious text, while I have read
many. Finding in more cases than not,
more questions than answers. Take Catholsism, for example. The very text they
aspire to speaks of three Immaculate Conceptions, while they only hold one up
to worship as the center of their belief. Samson’s mother was baron and also
visited by an angel, hence said to be the source of his (Samson) great
strength, as well as Isaac, the first Prophet of the Jews, whose wife was
baron. His first son was bore to him by a slave girl and eventually cast out at
his wife’s behest, when she was visited by an angel and, subsequently also gave
birth. “Discretion is the better part of valor…” a wise man once said and even
though most text direct one to, “spread the word…,” it is in no way an affront
if the situation doesn’t warrant such conversation.
SONGSOPTOK: What are the different ways religious tolerance,
including secularism, can help (or hurt) the demands of a complex world?
STEPHEN STONE: I believe a “complex world,” demands such
tolerance. If there is no tolerance there is only suspicion and suspicion
breeds apprehension, which leads to frustration and, eventually conflict. I
have never believed that simply because two may disagree that it has to mean
one of them is only wrong.
SONGSOPTOK: Should
‘religious tolerance’ be a part of the school curricula?
STEPHEN STONE: Sure, in conjunction with parental guidance.
School is often where we receive our first interaction of diversity, a pristine
opportunity to also employ and teach tolerance.
SONGSOPTOK: Religious
acceptance and bigotry appear to be the two sides of a coin (unbiased). People
are equally likely to choose one over the other. Do you agree with that
observation? Please explain.
STEPHEN STONE: I believe the aforementioned, to be more a
side effect of the indoctrination of any religious belief system. To often the
lessons that are left to the way side are those of tolerance and acceptance.
Religious acceptance and bigotry are another form of prejudice, not unlike that
we see based on skin color. Both stem from the same experience of culture and
history and are also the failure of same.
We sincerely thank
you for your time and hope we shall have your continued support.
Subhodev Das
(Chief Advisor:
Songsoptok)
0 Comments
