Is it a requirement?
I was commenting on the recent conversation.
Your comments don’t describe me. I’m not bigoted and I never have claimed to carry a banner of tolerance. I don’t understand why you could possibly think of me as being proudly tolerant but there’s plenty of things I don’t understand.
While we’re at it, we could also look at the bolded sentence and research the term oxymoron.
I am tolerant in the sense that I am well aware that people have every right to believe whatever they want regardless of how I feel about it. Where we obviously differ is that you seem to be under the impression that beliefs themselves somehow have the right to be respected and appreciated. I don’t think that.
Look, beliefs do deserve some level of respect. The fact of the matter is that all people believe something different from you. Not every belief that differs from yours is inherently wrong, or inherently worse than yours, or automatically so inferior that it is not deserving of some level of respect. Religious people have done much of the good in this world. Even the very values you hold were shaped tremendously by Judeo-Christian values.
Even if you are unable to accept the entirety of someone else’s value system, that does not mean you have to throw out all possible good that is associated with it. Personally, I have found many of your statements (not just now, but for months) offensive and disappointing. Nevertheless, I feel you are generally a good person with a sadly negative view of the world.
I am not bigoted towards any people, but if you must say that I’m “bigoted” toward a religious creed in the literal sense of the word then I supposed you’re technically right in some way, though I would argue that rejecting a philosophy based on its history and core ideologies that I find objectionable isn’t a fair example of “bigotry.” It’s just my feeble
I never said your mind or thought processes were feeble, nor did I imply as much.
and intolerant,
This I have determined to be true, even if you do not care to admit it.
sociopathic
This was expressed as a concern, not as a definitive statement, and when you offered clarification of your views, I stated that it was not a correct determination.
mind coming to a conclusion based on what it has observed.
Then perhaps you are splitting. Forgive my use of psychological terms because there is truly no way to evaluate you across the Web; I want to be clear that it is not my intent to do so. However, some of your statements do seem to perhaps fit this mold. Perhaps, you might be able to identify if there is any truth to this postulation on your own.
(That last sentence was sarcasm by the way.)
EDIT: And I said that I don’t carry a banner of tolerance because most people confuse tolerance with amicable, cordial, and watered-down suggestions rather than criticism. I’m tolerant in that I accept that people can do and believe what they want, but I don’t have to like those beliefs or actions.
You certainly don’t have to like one’s beliefs or actions. I certainly don’t like everyone’s beliefs. But it truly is a weak mind that cannot find the net good in a person or ideology, in spite of the potential disagreement and bad qualities. There are very few truly evil philosophies in this world, and it is absolute intolerance to find so much that is reprehensible about so many things that are largely good.
Let me end with an analogy. A couple of years ago, I conducted a little experiment (that probably didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but hopefully illustrated a point). I said that I hate black culture. I named several specifics. People thought I’d lost a screw and was revealing that I was racist all along. Were I moviefreakedmind, I could argue that, hey, I don’t hate black people; just the culture that so many cling to. But isn’t that really what most racists will cite? “I don’t hate black people. I just hate how so many of them are criminals and so many fathers abandon their children and most of them end up on drugs and…” I’ll be honest, crime is higher among blacks, more African-American fathers do abandon their children, more blacks end up in gangs or in drugs…but when I look at a black man, I cannot judge him on what many of his race may do. I cannot assume that he is like them. And even if he does have all those problems, I can’t assume that the entirety of black culture is bad. Look at all the good that is associated with African-Americans and that culture! Look at the good men and women who have worked to improve the well-being of a race of people who have been kept down for nothing more than higher melanin levels! If I judge a person or a people or a culture based on some of his/her/their/its weaknesses without looking at the greater whole, then I am…
…intolerant.