On toleration:
For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it. -
Thomas Jefferson
Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every
opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. ---
Thomas Jefferson 1743
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. --- Dalai Lama 1935
The devil loves nothing better than the intolerance of reformers, and
dreads nothing so much as their charity and patience. - Russell Lowell
Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another's
beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting
them. - Joshua Liebman
I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist and
Confucian. -- Mohandas Gandhi
All religions must be tolerated, for every man must get to heaven his
own way. -- Frederick the Great
Toleration . . . is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same
effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. - Helen
Keller
Be tolerant to others, respect the religious views of others if you would
have your own respected. - K.H. Once unfettered and delivered from
their deadweight of dogmatic interpretations, personal names,
anthropomorphic conceptions and salaried priests, the fundamental
doctrines of all religions will be proved to be identical in their esoteric
meaning. Osiris, Chrisna, Buddha, Christ, will be shown as different
names for one and the same royal highway to final bliss, Nirvana. -
The Maha Chohan
St. Paul: For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before
god, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles who
have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law
unto themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show
that what the law requires is written on their hearts. (Romans 2:
13-15)
Pope John Paul II: The individual person, despite human frailty, has the
ability to seek and freely know what is good, to recognize and reject
evil, to choose truth and to oppose error. In creating the person, God
wrote on the human heart a law which everyone can discover (cf.
Rom 2:15). Conscience for its part is the ability to judge and act
according to that law: to obey is the very dignity of man.
No human authority has the right to interfere with a person's
conscience. Conscience bears witness to the transcendence of the
person.
[This is the view of Jose Rizal as to human conscience, cf. Letter with
Fr. Pastell]
I believe it was Thomas Merton who said that the mysticisms of
Christianity is closer to the mysticism of Hinduism and Buddhism than
to the external belief systems of Christianity itself.
This I submit is the basis of genuine religious appreciation. It is not
negative tolerance, but sincerely seeing the validity and truth of the
other person's tradition, but at the same time recognizing the inevitable
errors and narrow sectarian viewpoints of every tradition including
one's own. One is not bothered by those outer disagreements because
one sees the more important essential agreement. (vhc)
And something else I like:
"I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything.
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."5
........................... Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) |
