I have been thinking today about how hard it really is to find common ground across differences. It is wonderful to idealize a coming together of people but really much harder to achieve.

One of the non-profit groups that has taken on that challenge is the Southern Poverty Law Association at the website below. Definitely try the Harvard link for testing your implicit biases - really interesting.

www.tolerance.org

Some of the principles I have learned about tolerance and finding bridges are
1)Recognizing the sources of my own worldview
2)Recognizing that individuals from minority groups have a different experience of the world that I can't really understand completely
3)Willingness to listen to how my words and thoughts are received by others

I found this very helpful in trying to work on common goals across differences. I am curious to hear about others' experience and thoughts as well.

Good point. I think the countries version of the test is new. Maybe they plan on expanding it to more over time....

I've been thinking of attpempting to start a tolerance movement of sorts, i try to find friends who are religiously and ethnically/racially tollerant i waskinda inspired by the COEXIST bumper stickers i've seen, and was thinking of using that as the acual name

I think that the real key to tolerance is to stop looking outside of ourselves for the answers - for the solutions to tolerance. We need to look inside ourselves, decide how it is that WE would like to be treated (on whatever issue) and then treat others (regardless of their differences) exactly as we would like to be treated.

Exactly

I have the bumper sticker. It is from

http://www.peacemonger.org/

It is a retail site. But you can view examples of sayings for free.

I have been thinking about the coexist bumper stickers so much lately

One thing about tolerance is education. Yes, you probably should treat the other person as you want to be treated, but you should know if that other person wants to be treated that way. I've met Christians who demand respect for their beliefs and others who respect mine. It's important to remember that not everyone wants to be treated like you do. Most importantly, it's best to get to know an individual. We all have different definitions of what an indigo is, so it's only logical to think that two different Muslims have different ideas of what Muslim is. Same goes for any religion.

Tolerance is also about acceptance. You don't have to agree with it, but you do have to accept that it is there and it's not up to you to change it. You can teach, but ultimately its up to that other person to change if they want. It's amazing how much just accepting that you can't change other people, changes other people. Or rather, changes your outlook of them.

Those bumper stickers are pretty cool.

I've struggled a lot with tolerating heavily religious people. Since I was a kid, I was treated unfairly because I wasn't Christian, and it left a lot of resentment in me. But instead of harboring ill will towards the people that practice the religions, I blamed the perversion of the religions over time.

It's much easier to get along with people, when you respect the basis of what they believe. Even if you don't respect what they worship now, you tend not to give off those conversational undertones that make it seem like you look down on them.

It's not exactly tolerance, but it's a lot closer to peace then not doing anything.

hmm yep coexist with all religions apart from satanism, luciferianism, sikhism, mormonism... etc... real great!

Now there's no need for that kind of sarcasm. It's a symbol, not a dictionary of all religions. They couldn't possibly put all religions on there.

There are more sayings and symbols on their site - but I am unaware of what they are.

I always took the meaning of coexistence to mean to suggest a world in which we no longer looked down on belief systems that weren't are own. We didn't try to change people or take over. But we didn't segregate either. Just living, working, vacationing with and among people who are not like us.

"Religion is the opiate of the people" therefore people should get high just for reaching it, and people that are high are supposed to feel cool and relaxed, right?

Well if it was true religion wouldn't be such a pain in the ass for some people.

I sometimes go visit a church (Catholic), just because I feel good inside and because I also appreciate all the sculptures and paintings. It's a feeling that I can't deny, I feel good inside some churches, specially if they're mostly empty.