RELIGIOUS
TOLERANCE IN TODAY’S WORLD
Religious toleration is a preaching of people allowing
others to think or practice religions and beliefs different from their own. In
a country with a state religion, toleration
means that the government allows other religions, often minority, to exist
alongside the official one. One may also come across the word “religism” meaning
"the expression of fear towards, hatred towards, or discrimination
against, persons of a specific religion affiliation, usually a minority faith"
substituting for
religious tolerance.
In terms of morality, one
can equate religious tolerance with respect, an aspect that is often overlooked.
Religious tolerance assumes that a person does not discriminate against another
person's religious beliefs, even if they think that the person's beliefs as
wrong. Religious tolerance differs from religious acceptance.
Undoubtedly one’s
religion is largely the product of one’s place of origin and of early teaching
in the family and environment. Most people inherit their religion like their
eye color. Thus, what they learn as a child is very difficult to change when
they grow up. As John Hick puts it “If God is
omnibenevolent and just ... he would not put a newborn to a disadvantage. This
seems to mean only one thing: All religions give a person the same chance for salvation."
Why then should anybody
become an enemy just because he or she professes a different religion? What is
the root cause of intolerance?
Religious intolerance
scarcely existed before the rise of monotheism. Ancient polytheistic religions
worshipped numerous gods but never involved doctrinally precise professions of
faith. Orthodoxy or heresy was non-existent. The gods were mutually tolerant of
one another, and the worshippers were eclectic, moving from one shrine or cult
to the next without the slightest feeling of inconsistency.
In Tarsus, where St.
Paul grew up, as in all the towns of the ancient world outside of Judea, the
gods were not jealous. They insisted that they must be offered punctiliously
all honors due to them, but they did not worry about what honors were paid to
other gods or men. Much later, Attila the Hun allowed members of his horde to
follow whichever gods they wished, so long as they didn’t interfere in each
other’s freedom of worship. Attila as model for religious tolerance?
In today's world, the
religions of wisdom (primarily the Eastern religions) appear to be far more
tolerant than their Western counterparts, the religions of revelation. The
Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who look to the Bible and the Qur’an for
guidance, find hundreds of passages that can be called upon to bolster their
claims that violence and hatred against enemies are not only justified but
reflect the will of God. Ultimately, it is left to the individual practitioners
of a religion – what aspects of the religion should be embraced.
We are religiously
tolerant when we give others the freedom to do things and believe things, even
though we feel that they are wrong! To some people, this is not easy. Some feel
that their religion is the only true faith, and that to oppress followers of
another religion is to promote God's will in society. We support their
right to believe this. But we oppose them if they want to take action
to oppress others. That path leads in the direction of rape, murder and
crucifixions by the Islamic State, the killing fields of Bosnia- Herzegovina,
the massacres in East Timor, the gas chambers of Nazi Germany and numerous
other horrors.
At its core, religious
toleration as a human rights issue. A person is tolerant when she/he respects
the right of others to hold different religious beliefs. A person might believe
that her/his own faith is the only valid religion – the one
fully approved of and created by a particular God. She/he might consider all
other religions as profoundly evil. Yet, she/he can be religious tolerant
towards others if she/he recognize that all individuals and religious groups
have the basic human right of religious liberty – to freely follow their
faith's beliefs and practices.
SUBHODEV DAS
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