Ignorance makes us intolerant of the views and beliefs of others.
I think almost everyone has had to deal with believers who struggled to teach others the mind. My wife was recently reprimanded for entering the temple with her head uncovered. “Why not?” – the inquisitive wife asked and in response she heard a lot of bad words addressed to her. I just didn’t get a good explanation. And it is very simple. In ancient times, a woman’s uncovered head was considered the height of indecency: it is clear that in this way she tries to capture the attention of men. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and today the conquerors of hearts bewitch men in much more frank ways. But the church is a conservative place, and the custom has remained.
Do not assume that only our believers are badly savvy. In the United States, a recent study found that Christians, on average, correctly answered half of the 32 religious questions they were asked.* The Jews turned out to be more erudite – 20 correct answers. But both agnostics and atheists were ahead of both – 21 answers hit the mark. And it was a real surprise. Although, of course, how to look.
The fact is that the questions concerned not one religion, but several. And a Christian could briskly answer about Christ, but fall asleep on questions about Buddha. The Buddhist is the opposite. While skeptics, as a rule, have higher education and have probably taken a course in the history of religion at their universities. And there they were told about Buddha, and about Christ, and also about many gods, goddesses and prophets.
But I’m talking about something else. It is ignorance in matters of faith that makes people aggressive towards those who hold different views. And this applies equally to believers and non-believers. The former, guided by faith, often do not seek to back it up with knowledge; blind enthusiasm and compunction from their own piety are enough for them. And knowledge of foreign religions is of no use to them at all – why waste time on something that is false? And therefore, those who ask unpleasant questions, instead of answers, receive a splash of aggression. But well-savvy skeptics, on closer examination, turn out to be not very knowledgeable. Wishing to justify their unbelief, they prefer to draw from religious history everything tragic and not to notice positive things. And they also fall into intolerance, enthusiastically convincing themselves and others that nothing good can be expected from religion. Such mutual aggression leads to what is commonly called “cultural wars”. Believers and non-believers selflessly fight for every inch of culture, not wanting to give it to the “enemy”. But if you accept that the cause of the conflict is a lack of awareness, it will no longer seem insoluble. Yes, I didn’t know before, but now I do. It happens to everyone?
* Survey conducted by Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project in 2010 (pewforum.org)