Tolerance and the Monotheistic Razor
'May you live in interesting times' is thought to be a curse in some cultures. We certainly live in interesting times. Even simply concerning religion and spiritual thought, times are indeed interesting. We have come to a point where there is enough religious freedom in the western world that other forms of religion are being once again expressed and experimented with. This includes Paganism, Buddhism, etc. Not only are they expressed, but there are laws enacted in most western countries to protect these practices and people. It is an era of religious tolerance, but we are just moving into it and there happens to be some stragglers: the monotheists. This may seem like an intolerant statement to make for someone claiming to be an enlightened tolerant person, but perhaps within the rest of this article I can make you understand my viewpoint.
We must first examine the mindset of the syncretic polytheist and the monotheist. In the polytheists mind, their spiritual world is already split up into many facets – many gods and goddesses – many aspects to the divine. Their minds work in ways that facilitate the recognition of connection between all things and similarity between different ideas and concepts. To the polytheist, someone with a different religion is no threat. Beyond this, even though this other person has a different religion, the polytheist is not likely to deny the existence of their god(s) as to them, its just one more god or goddess among the many that they already believe in themselves. They may not worship their new neighbor's god(s), but they won't deny their existence. They may even extend the connections they see in a syncretic fashion. For example 'Wow, your god is much like our Dionysos. Let's chat about that'. Further to this, the polytheistic mind is trained in seeing many aspects at once, so things don't tend to fall into purely good or evil categories, just simply shades of grey. It's not that ideas or actions cannot be good or evil, just that they don't necessarily fall into one of these buckets by default. In essence, the polytheistic mindset is set up for tolerance of other beliefs and other religions.
Now compare this to monotheism. In my mind I think of Christianity, but it can be any true monotheistic religion. In the monotheists mind, there is one god. All other gods are false and/or evil. Their minds are set up in a two bucket system: Black/White, Good/Evil, Right/Wrong, Love/Hate, Us/Them. The 'Us vs. Them' is a very interesting dynamic. I call this the 'Monotheistic Razor'. This means there is no room in their worldview for both themselves being correct and for others to be correct as well, but different. In the monotheistic mind, in order for that person to justify their religion all different religions must be wrong/false/evil. Note that I am not talking about a random partially agnostic monotheist that is a monotheist in name only. I am talking about a true believer. They still may love and care about the other person, but they will think they are fundamentally wrong. Any true monotheist, no matter how outwardly tolerant, in their hearts believe that if you have a different religion you are going to hell/you are an infidel/etc. The only way to rectify this love and caring of someone practicing evil (in their minds) is to save them; to bring them over to their religion. This can be done in a whole continuum of ways from mild proselytization to mass war and conversion by the sword. Even at its mildest form, proselytization is a form of intolerance. It is a way of saying "My religion is right and yours is wrong" or if you want a more playground approach "my invisible friend(s) is better than your invisible friend(s)". Things will always be black and white for the polytheistic mind. And when a new way of looking at things/living/etc comes up that does not jive with their religious worldview, then in their minds it is evil/bad and should be illegal for all even if not all share their religion. Think of concepts like gay marriage. Monotheistic groups and individuals campaigned against gay marriage on the platform that it's evil in the eyes of their god without thought that others may not share their views. In their mind, it was unacceptable because it had to be Good or Bad. Good for some and bad for others never enters into their mindset. It has to be one or the other for all in their eyes. There are only two instances where a true monotheist will step away from this type of thinking. First, because they themselves (or someone they love) are engaging in behaviours that their religious organization believes evil. Second, and far more common in our day and age, because they want to appear politically correct. I have talked to many monotheists on topics like this. Topics that form a razor of good and evil in their minds. They will say things like 'I personally think its wrong/it erodes our western society – but of course everyone should have equal rights'. It's a politically correct way to be a bigot these days. Its much like folks that start off a sentence with 'I am not a racist but….'. I have rambled on here, but my point is that there is this razor of us vs. them, good vs. evil in the monotheists mind that sets them up for intolerance.
Let's look at what happens when a monotheistic religion creeps into a previously polytheistic syncretic culture. Put any names you desire on said monotheistic culture and said polytheistic culture. To start with, the polytheistic culture opens the door wide open and invites them in. It's just one more god or goddess anyway, among the possible thousands already worshipped in their culture. Besides, this new monotheistic god and his myths are very similar to their God X and Goddess Y and Hero Z. The have much to share. But once in, the monotheistic has messages of 'Our way is the right way, and your way may end in eternal torture and damnation'. To the average polytheist this is a tough call. As long as they lead a just life their gods/goddesses will ensure a proper afterlife/Elysium/Valhalla/summer land/etc no matter which god they are worshipping. But there is that kernel of doubt. What if? What if the crazy monotheists are right? If they are right and I stay with my religion I will be eternally tortured. If I convert to their religion and they are wrong then my gods will still reward my moral life. This sort of 'What if' converted thousands. Philosopher Blaise Pascal notes this with his famous 'Pascals Wager' which he insists that people should wager on 'God' as if he is real then you win and if he is not then you have lsot nothing. It's because it introduces that razor into their minds like a computer virus and it won't stop haunting them until they convert. The whole situation is rather impolite really. It's much like having a guest show up at your door, you invite them in, and they demand that you cook veal for dinner or everyone will die of poison. On top of that they claim they invented the concept of dinner anyway and may harm anyone who opposes the veal idea. I am only half kidding on that last point. In short, the historic polytheistic culture was woefully unprepared for the effects that a monotheistic religion would have on them.
Now we must think about the reverse of the last scenario. That is a polytheistic religion creeping into a monotheistic culture (by and large it is). This is where we stand at the present time. Our culture is loaded with the monotheistic razor (Good/Evil, Us/Them, Right/Wrong, Black/White). From that standpoint any new religion that doesn't resemble the old must be evil. That's a real stumbling block to overcome. The only reason it was overcome is that we have laws protecting the freedom of religion. These laws nearly require that people put an outward face of tolerance to other beliefs. It's a very threatening time to a monotheistic culture as the only reason they maintained the level of followers they had was by having that 'monotheistic razor' prevalent in every mind. Now tolerance works as an antivirus to the razor so to speak. You cannot think in terms of tolerance while still viewing things as good vs. evil. It just doesn't work. So what is a good monotheistic person/religion/culture to do? They use tolerance against itself. They will persecute and proselytize to their hearts content. People on the polytheism side will then cry 'Intolerance!' and that's just what the monotheists want. They want this as then they can say 'But proselytization is part of our religion, you must be tolerant of that! Tolerance applies to us as well you know'. It's really a brilliant move. It's the same type of move involved with having 'Intelligent Design' in the classrooms. It leaves us scratching our heads as polytheists as we don't want to be intolerant to the monotheists as this will make us hypocrites and laughable. But it's a move of a desperate and cornered animal. Let's be honest here, they can see the wave of the future and it's not monotheism and it's not intolerance. It's not the way of the monotheistic razor. They see the writing on the wall much as the polytheistic culture did when the monotheistic religion crept in. The equivalent metaphor to the previous paragraph is would be saying everyone is welcome to dinner at their house and then complaining when a leper or two show up.
What can be done in these cases? Well historically we are quite polite to those that come to our door, those that proselytize, and those that persecute. We try to be tolerant of that behaviour as we don't want to be intolerant ourselves, and thus hypocrites. Let me show you the logical flaw in the monotheistic tactic of using tolerance against itself. Let's assume that there is this magic bubble, a sphere which contains all the followers of a certain religion. Let's label it 'The Sphere or Religious Influence'. Each religion has a 'sphere of religious influence'. Now within this sphere of religious influence there can be many wild and crazy beliefs and practices. This is where tolerance, freedom, and equality apply. Any one of us enlightened folks would agree that tolerance of what is preached/believed/etc within the sphere of religious influence (as long as it isn't illegal in the society) is a good thing and an accepted thing. I can perfectly tolerate monotheistic religions preaching to those within their sphere of religious influence that their god is the one true god and all others will be tortured for eternity in hell, etc. That's fine. I don't believe it myself, but I think its fine that others do and I would fight to ensure that they have the religious freedom to do so. Just as I want other people/religions to tolerate what I preach/belief in my own religious circle. Here is where the monotheistic view on tolerance falls down though. They want people to tolerate how they preach/act to those outside their sphere of religious influence. They knock on doors of people not a part of their faith to proselytize (basically telling the people that their religion is false) and they want that to fall under 'tolerance'. They want public schools, which are outside of their sphere of religious influence, to teach creationism and for us to tolerate their push to do so. They want laws to be enacted in our country (which is outside of there sphere of religious influence) to align with their religious values and they want us to tolerate that behaviour. In short they want their quest to have EVERYTHING in their sphere of religious influence as a tolerable activity. I suppose we should tolerate the dictator set on world domination as well as 'That's just the way he is'. Let's put this in another light. Let's say I start a new religion that worships 'Stretchia – Goddess of jogging pants'. In this religion, it is our prime directive to go door to door of the non believers and tell them that they 'look fat in those pants'. This is no more of an insult then telling someone their religious beliefs are wrong. But if we claimed that other people/religions/etc should tolerate this behaviour, we would be laughed at. Yet that's exactly the approach that the monotheistic religions are taking. They are the stragglers in our new era of tolerance. They don't want tolerance as it destroys the monotheistic razor. They want to instead twist tolerance on its end to allow the razor to continue.
What can we do about this? Well, we can stop being polite. It sounds harsh, but when you see it in terms of a struggle between the Monotheistic Razor and Tolerance, the more we are polite in these cases, the more we are telling these folks that what they do is ok. It's not ok. Every single time we tell them its ok, we erode the very religious freedom and tolerance we cherish. Logically we are not hypocrites if we don't tolerate this behaviour as these folks have overstepped the bounds of their sphere of religious influence. We need to be educated on what the 'Sphere of Religious Influence' is and how it relates to tolerance. We need to take this knowledge and confidence that we are not being hypocritical and tell these people that they are wrong. Tell them to get off our porches…or tell them they 'look fat in those pants'. Some of you will say 'but what of those people who just genuinely want to share religious ideas with me'. It should be noted that there is a really thick line between sharing and proselytizing. With sharing both parties are willing to listen to the others beliefs/approach/etc with an open mind. With proselytizing, one mind is already closed. Generally you don't get someone on your porch to 'share a word about the lord' if they truly want a two way exchange of information. We have come into this era of religious tolerance and it's good. We should not be meek about defending this tolerance as if we are, we will lose it. We will not likely fall for the monotheistic razor or 'Pascal's Wager' again as we can see those coming miles away now, but we are in danger of allowing tolerance being used against itself. And we shouldn't feel shame for being intolerant of religious groups that act outside their sphere of religious influence. It is simply us guarding our newly found freedoms – and those freedoms should be for all to share.
Written by Ravendreamer