superluminal
These questions pertain to whatever religion you subscribe to. The more diverse the sample, the better. For me at least. If you please:
1) What is your personal philosophy on tolerance toward people who do not share your religion?
There is only one religion -
surrender to god. According to time place and circumstances there are numerous approaches - but a religion can be judged according to the degree that
this principle is practiced. So you find a variety of religions that also have a variety of standards for persons who are liberated, on the path of liberation or on the path of fruitive activities. There are indications of 81 different varieties of religion given by commenatators on the vedas, all of which are distinct from the perfectional summit of pure, unmotivated, unalloyed devotion to god. The more closer a religion is to this summit, the easier it is to to tolerate.
2) What is the "generally accepted" or group stance of your religion on the above question (in your estimation)?
On an institutional level there is a requirement for numbers, congregation etc, but the general view is that bona fide religion, performed properly (ie in accordance with scripture) is ok - like for instance a buddhist who acknowledges that Lord Buddha requested his disciples to strain the water they drank through fine cloth to avoid unneccesarily killing insect larvae and who also refused to drink the milk of a cow that had a calf less than 10 weeks (lest he deprive the calf) is viewed with an element of disdain if they have no reservations about eating meat
3) If your religion involves an afterlife, punishment, or reward, how does this affect your answers to 1) and 2) ?
Religion is generally viewed as a gradual process that may take many lifetimes to perfect, even for ourselves, what to speak of others - if someone is stabilized on an inferior system of religious practice, if their practice is successful (ie they secure the blessings of their religious founders, like say jesus in the case of the xtians), they either get the opportunity to take birth on an elevated material planet that has a more dominant mode of spiritual life or they take birth in a family of pure devotees on this earth (ie they take birth in a family where the principles of pure surrender to god are properly understood), so they get the opportunity to address any unsuitable habits before entering the eternal abode of god
4) Based on your answers above, how would you personally propose to manage a world in which there are dozens of distinct major religions and thousands of spinoffs and most likely always will be?
Take a trip to India - its been like that for time immemorial, even before the muslims came - The general mood that existed when the greek orthodox christians arrived in south india (a couple of hundred years before the muslims spilled across punjab) was that they were heard and listened to and those that were convinced became christians. they still have a foothold there today in some parts of the south (The muslims were unable to take over Sth India due to the strong pacts of the Sth Indian Kings) - it requires intelligence and segregation, ie leaving people alone to do their own thing - this is actually the policy the british had when they were in India. Even though they had an ambition to socially deconstruct the existing vedic religious system in India, they were more interested in fleecing India of her riches, so they never interfered with religious observances. This seemed to work
