Definition
The mere statement on the part of a religion that its own beliefs and practices are correct and any contrary beliefs are incorrect in itself constitutes intolerance (i.e., ideological intolerance). On the other hand, religious tolerance would mean that each person is free to chose his own faith and no other person would have a right to pass opinions on the faith of an other person. While Christianity may be the faith of A, Islam may be the faith of B. If A or B try to tell each other that the other is on the way to hell then that would be intolerance. Religious intolerance, rather, is when a group (e.g., a society, religious group, non-religious group) specifically refuses to tolerate practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds (i.e., intolerance in practice).
Read more about this topic: Religious Intolerance
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)
“It is very hard to give a just definition of love. The most we can say of it is this: that in the soul, it is a desire to rule; in the spirit, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is but a hidden and subtle desire to possess—after many mysteries—what one loves.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.”
—William James (1842–1910)