Both tolerance and respect are empty virtues until we actually understand whatever it is we are supposed to be tolerating or respecting.
Interpretation
Understanding is essential to true tolerance and respect.
This quote by Stephen Prothero highlights that true tolerance and respect are not merely passive feelings but require a deeper understanding of the beliefs, practices, and backgrounds of others. Without comprehension, these virtues lack substance, and we risk merely going through the motions without genuine engagement or appreciation of diversity.
In practice
In a speech about promoting cultural awareness, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of understanding different backgrounds.
Pretending that the worldβs religions are the same does not make our world safer. Like all forms of ignorance, it makes our world more dangerous. What we need on this furiously religious planet is a realistic view of where religious rivals clash and where they can cooperate.
Remember that not everyone is as strong as you are. Be mindful of human weakness, and of the fact that it may be more important, in the long run, to get many people taking steps in the right direction than to have fewer achieving the ideal.
We are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting them.
But perhaps when you were too obedient, and did not do openly what others did, and were quiet in church and hard-working at school, then some unknown rebellion brewed in you, doing harm to you, though how I do not understand.
We consider that any man who can fiddle all through one of those Virginia Reels without losing his grip may be depended upon in any kind of musical emergency.
Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.
Greed arises only because your present moment is empty, and to live in an empty moment hurts very much. To forget it you project greed into the future, thinking that tomorrow things are going to be better, a lottery is going to open in your name. But of course you have to wait for tomorrow, it cannot be just now - and tomorrow never comes. All that comes is always the present moment, which is empty. Greed is because we don't know how to live the present moment in its total richness.
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