In a message dated 10/31/1999 2:58:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, CurtAdams@aol.com writes:
> On the whole, I think the variety is good. Religions, as Voltaire pointed
> out,
> become tyrannical when alone, participate in gruesome civil war in pairs,
> but
> become well-behaved when facing a slew of competitors. This variety means
> that even if the superstitious types win the day, we won't face a
theocracy,
> just a lot of airheads.
I suspect that you are on-target. For all of its problems, the subcontinent
of India, and the wars and starvations of China, were not features of
religious intolerence. Even India, had comparative peace (despite the Muslim
conquest) becuase of its tradition of religious tolerance. We might also add
to this mailing list, a tolerance of religion and religious differences.