Religion Doesn't Cause Intolerance?!

I was (briefly) part of a conversation in one of the more 'tolerant' and 'open minded' online communities. The subject was religion: does it cause intolerance.

I suggested that, although religion can be the subject of intolerance, it doesn't seem to cause it. Any more than cutting your hair to one length rather than another, preferring one sort of music to another, or having a skin tone that's not quite the same as your neighbor "causes" intolerance.

'Obviously,' I'm a quite ignorant person who doesn't know that religion causes intolerance. Everybody's heard of the Spanish Inquisition and stuff like that.

If that doesn't sound familiar, you haven't been in the Western hemisphere of Earth for the last couple centuries.

I recognize that there are people who are intolerant about religious matters. There are also people who are intolerant about quite a few things.

But I still don't think that wearing your hair shorter (or longer) than other people makes you intolerant. Although someone might have assumed that was the case during the sixties, from the furor over teenagers' fashion choices.

I've written about tolerance and related topics before. You don't have to believe me, by the way, when I say that religion - Catholicism, at any rate - really isn't all that 'intolerant' of people: I'm a Catholic, and 'everybody knows' what they're like.

• "Jesus Christ, Beer, Tobacco, Idols and Indian Law"
  (February 22, 2010)
• "Hating People: Not a Good Idea"
  (January 22, 2010)
• "The Manhattan Declaration: Hateful? - Who Knew?"
  (November 21, 2009)
• "Tony Alamo, 'Those Evangelists,' and Labels"
  (November 13, 2009)
• " 'I Hate Barack Obama' - Maybe Not the Best Message from a Pulpit"
  (September 1, 2009)
• "Afghanistan's 'Family Law,' Western Mores, and Catholic Teaching"
  (August 22, 2009)
• "Tolerance: Yes, it's a Good Idea"
  (August 3, 2009)
• " 'Dumb B*ch' Carrie Prejean: Faith, and an 'Apoplectic' Blogger"
  (April 21, 2009)
• "Pro-Life? You May be a Dangerous Domestic Terrorist! MIAC Says So"
  (March 23, 2009)
• "The Pope, Angola, and the News: No Wonder 'Everybody Knows' What Those Catholics Are Like"
  (March 22, 2009)
• " 'Get f****d, Catholic Church' - It Comes With the Territory"
  (March 18, 2009)
• "Sex, Condoms, AIDS, an 'Immoral' Pope, and What Everybody Knows"
  (March 17, 2009)
• "The Catholic Church and Homosexuals: Harsh and Soft, Judgmental and Understanding"
  (March 13, 2009)
• "American Catholic Bishops Intolerant! (I Should Hope So)"
  (November 13, 2008)