On Tolerance?

Question

If you know you're right, and that your way is the best way, why should you be tolerant of opposing views?.......Why should you tolerate people or arguments that contradict you?........Isn't tolerance sort of something that you grant to those who aren't good enough to assert themselves in a way which doesn't require such charity………Doesn't it seem like if we go about creating circumstances where we tolerate things that are undesirable that this could lead to a weakening of desirable traits in evolutionary sense…………..I know tolerance is a great catch phrase for a political campaign………but really, is it a good idea to regard it so highly?

Answer 1

I never assume that I am the only right view...As each of us is brought into the world into different families, with different views * some quite dysfunctional*, with different social structure and economical background. We can not expect others to meet us at our level, as it is selfish and self serving. I have never met one person who had nothing to teach me, even if I did not understand their view, I respectfully listen as it is my love of humanity that keeps me humbled. A person who lives on the street knows more of life than most should ever have to, and yet they are looked upon as ignorant, yet have you been homeless on the streets? It is not a pretty sight and it is not out of ignorance that one would be there. Would you judge them as ignorant simply because they have less money than you? This is an example, I am not asking you a question. One does not have to be educated in one particular way to have a great deal of knowledge, acceptance comes with our flawed humanity.
Tolerance is what we grant to those we do not agree with, when we see difference in opinion. We may become more tolerant of things which differ from our views, as it broadens our view of humanity, it does not mean that we must accept every view as worthy, only as their truth. Since we do all come from such different backgrounds, we need to find worth in each human, we are all different, each person has their own individual mindset, letting something such as a belief stand in the way is simply a way of touting superiority over another...Who are we to tout anything as superior or inferior to us? It is not right, listen to your heart to guide your thoughts and you will find that in this life, we can not evolve unless our humanity evolves in love.
Tolerance is not regarded highly, people who are capable of showing tolerance are. They as humans are regarded highly, it takes a great person to try to find something in each person that is a commonality, even if it is only that we share the homo sapien gene. These people are regarded highly, as not everyone can be tolerant without acting superior in a world who would say that they are.

Our flaws are what create us, our love of humanity and how we think and feel are what unite us. Any intolerance only serves to separate us.

Blessings of love and light!

Answer 2

It depends on what you're tolerating. I don't believe that we should sit idlely by while one freedom after the other is stripped away from us. I believe that if we all banded together such as the African-American population does then we stand a greater chance of having things changed for the better. For example: I have been receiving emails containing info on how us Christians are tolerating a slim 14% of Americans who do not believe take away the Ten Commandments, any mention of God and all the other things this country was founded upon. I firmly believe that the 86% of us should stand up and tell the 14% to shut up!!!
Now tolerating race is something we ALL should learn to do by now. But the people who can't seem to get on with things are (excuse me) the blacks. Don't get me wrong I have some good friends who are black but when they try to blame me personally then I have a problem.

Answer 3

Good point. But multiple people think their way is best and true, and whether they are right or not, you as a person who believes that they believe the truth can't convince a person who believes that they have the truthful knowledge, and it causes conflict. Tolerance is a means of avoiding conflict, and overall preserve the species through less death of our own kind, strengthening our stance as "on top" of all other species. If it were not for tolerance, and compromise, we would not be having this discussion right now, because none of us would be here.

Answer 4

You are absolutely right... tolerance of the bad or undesirable is a sin in itself. However, we need to be absolutely sure of what we know as good and right.... this is where the catch is... in this highly complex and uncertain world, we can rarely be absolutely certain of anything to be true in all circumstances. Tolerance becomes necessary to unlearn in order to learn. If we have fixed ideas and no tolerance with different ideas held equally strongly by others, we run the risk of clinging on to our own blocking all space for our own improvement.

Ideally therefore, we should have conviction in our own ideas and yet we should not be too arrogant to close our mind totally to any other ideas and views, especially if we find these held by people who are creditable and trustworthy. Fixed ideas make us single-dimensional and prevent us from exploring life fully and properly.

Answer 5

"Be Intolerant: Because Some Things Are Just Stupid," by Ryan Dobson, and "The Last Christian Generation" by Josh McDowell are examples of contemporary Christian writers who agree with your position on "not tolerating tolerance" as the main communal virtue.

What "tolerance" in this sense imports is a complete relativism save being intolerant toward any absolutism, e.g. Christianity (and, less presently, Islam, as the latter is agonistic re the former, per "the enemy of my enemy is my ally" logic of post-modernism).

Logically, it may be that e.g. a particular relgion has significantly more of the Truth than any other (or, a particular secular ideology might have more truth, e.g. transhumanism or marxism).

The "Elijah complex" is noted in the Bible when Elijah feels himself to be the last One on earth; a kind of super-proper Puritan or Holy One of God.

The "yang" of Absolute Father-Truth and the "yin" of inclusive Omega All-in-all find human parallels in the "dictator" and the "whore," aka the "plutocrat" and the "communist."

The "lie" or the "compromise" is variable at each level of energy-configurings, and humans are encouraged/tempted to take up either the more formal/impersonal or the more personal/accomodative polarization position, regarding some thing/idea which they are challenged by or confronted with. During such periods or trials one's only Friend is God, the Living Light of Christos, the Holy Spirit.

A more gentle, less-conflicted depiction of this general and common Jacobean ladder unfolding and climbing process is C. S. Lewis' novella "The Great Divorce." (A model of intuitive grace is given in Martha Beck's "Expecting Adam.")

kind regards,

j.

Answer 6

"...When thinkers accept those who deny the existence of thinking, as fellow thinkers of a different school of thought—it is they who achieve the destruction of the mind. They grant the enemy's basic premise, thus granting the sanction of reason to formal dementia. A basic premise is an absolute that permits no co-operation with its antithesis and tolerates no tolerance. In the same manner and for the same reason as a banker may not accept and pass counterfeit money, granting it the sanction, honor and prestige of his bank, just as he may not grant the counterfeiter's demand for tolerance of a mere difference of opinion..."

Answer 7

I think you are thinking about it a bit too much, when they say tolerance I think it is more to just let the other people continue thinking how they do and not pushing your views onto theirs.

Answer 8

See the glory of tolerence from the teachings of Mahatma or Read the book MY LIFE IS MY MESSAGE AND MY EXPERIMENT WITH TRUTH.

Answer 9

Confidence is the first casualty of wisdom.

Answer 10

tolerate this,..the bible, king james version preferred, is the truth and the essence of life,..

i e a e,..
avatar of the unification,..