Tolerance

Most people like the idea of tolerance.
The truth is that they only accept it in a very generic way.
To be tolerant, is to accept change, and to accept difference whenever it is upon us or just around us. Embracing change becomes a requirement for tolerance.

World peace is all about tolerance. It is about accepting different people, with different ways and different values to be themselves even when right in front of you.

Religion is about absolute certainty. Is about repeating the same words over and over, in a church or holding a rosary, forever and ever, until the end of time, even if that means defying logic or letting go of common sense. When it is all about faith, thinking about it does not matter:

Amnesty International has condemned the stoning of a 13-year-old girl in southern Somalia. The human rights organization claims the teenager was stoned to death after her father informed the authorities that she had been gang-raped. She was reportedly accused of adultery and the stoning, in front of a crowd of around 1,000, was her punishment. Reporter Jon Manel and Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International, discuss the influence of militant Islamist group Al Shabab, which has control of some areas in Somalia.

From this article.

Well... Gay marriage, abortion, public displays of affection, and an endless list of behaviors that people have, will obviously clash at some point with some religion's law that clearly states that no one can have such behavior. No one can be different. No one can be outside what such religion claims.

You can surely see where this is going as far as tolerance goes. World peace, for one, will have to wait a long time... If you don't believe me, ask the 13 year old girl mentioned above.

Tolerance and Muslim Faith

One day, someone in Denmark made some drawings of prophet Muhammed, of Islam. It was a cartoon about the muslim god. However, the reacting muslims looked more like this:

Muslims at the Danish Embassy in Britain,
preaching their views on tolerance,
according to their religion.

For these religious people in the picture above, it is ok to trust the invisible god they have never seen, and trust that his teachings are just fine: if anyone makes a drawing of my invisible god, or if they say something I believe to be an insult to him, I should slay them, butcher them, and make all Europe pay because demolition is on its way.

Religious faiths are not all the same. But when us as a society grant people the right to trust whatever thing they want (faith), even when no reason or facts are behind those beliefs, it is obvious that if enough time passes, beliefs like the ones on the pictures will eventually be part of our world, and forever passed from generation to generation...

If you think world peace is on its way, religion will make sure that day will never come. At least for as long as we allow people to draw cartoons about whatever they want, that is...

[Definition] Omnibenevolent

Omnibenevolence: unlimited or infinite benevolence.
(Benevolence: the quality of being kind and altruistic.)

If one is the universe's creator, and one is the God of any major religion, they are omniscient in that creation. God would know exactly what such creation is going to turn out to be, whatever the circumstances, whenever the circumstances. Given that perfect knowledge, the universe will still be created, and everything that will ever exist is going to be exactly the way the creator knew it would be. Such creator is omniscient.

Once God created the universe, everything in it is included in God's plan. I do not know if there was a plan to begin with, but knowing that God knows all, then everything will go according to that infinite knowledge, on in other words, according to the plan. Everything will be the way God knows and wants it to be, always.

Gods in major religions are seen as forgiving, merciful, compassionate, and kind in a infinite way. However, they chose to create evil, knew all, so they knew the consequences of that evil, and created beings that are evil, which is still included in God's initial plan., because all is included. If God knew all before creation and still created all this way, then that was the plan.
So why forgive what or who is happening according to plan (evil or not, that was the plan)?
Why punish whoever is happening according to plan? Is there anything or any one thing that has not or will not go according to God's plan messing up God's omniscience?

God's cannot be just, or merciful, or kind, or evil. All in the universe is just the way it is supposed to be from the start, because all omniscient beings knew it would be this way, and that is how they created everything.
Therefore, omnibenevolence is not a quality any omniscient god can have. At least not the ones that created hell and eternal punishments along with the universe (If they claim that quality, they're faking it!). Eternal punishments after death seems like a sentence given to someone that had messed up the plan of the universe's supreme being. Can that be possible?

[Definition] Omnipresent

Omnipresence: is the property of being present everywhere.

There seems to be no present major religion with god(s) that are omnipresent but not omniscient. Given this assumption, what would the purpose of omnipresence be, after already being omniscient?

We go to places to interact with its contents. No one ever goes somewhere to do exactly what one can do where they already were to begin with. At least no one ever does that rationally.
We can read a book at home, but if we choose to read it outside, it is because the outside has something else to offer us, and so on...

If you are omniscient and know all, you are in the position of not needing interaction. Whatever that interaction was supposed to give you, you already have perfect knowledge of its outcome. Unless you plan on affecting the environment actively, why go there in the first place?
Knowing all (omniscience) is a concept that includes what being everywhere provides you with, because if you know all, you know the same (or more) as if you were everywhere.
The same way that being under water includes having your hands wet.
So why the trouble of being everywhere when you know everything at all times?

Unless you need to do something actively instead of passively watching, being everywhere at every time, forever and ever, and being omniscient at the same time seems pretty useless.

[Definition] Omniscient

Omniscience: the capacity to know everything infinitely.

This concept is very interesting. It means that all things that anyone can know, past, present, and future, are already known by an omniscient being.

Gods of all major religions share this trait.
And if for some reason the concept seems simple, or if you think that being omniscient would be something cool, consider this:

• Would you like to know the lotto numbers? Even knowing before playing, what, when and how you would spend every penny, and knowing perfectly how you would enjoy each experience, with no surprises, knowing as well as if you were living it the second time around or the 1000th time around, even before experiencing it the first time?
• Would you enjoy the company of a person, if you knew all things the person thinks, everything that person would say to you or talk to you about, ever, as well as all events, all experiences shared, all harm and good coming to that person, darkest secrets, flaws, everything?! But, better, all that even before meeting the person for the first time? Just like watching a movie for that second time... ;)
• What about mankind? Would you like to know how we started but also how we ended and why? Even before mankind started? No mysteries, no surprises, ever?
• Would you like to never experience learning because you already know it all? Or never experiencing decisions, because you already know all of them?
• What about the meaning of life? Would you like to know the meaning of life? Even before life or the universe started?
• Would you like to never experience surprise, because everything is exactly the way you know it is?
  
• What would you do, if everything about to be done, every pleasure or pain coming from it, any success or failure, was already known to you? Just like you know what the next breath of air is going to feel like as you read this, and the next one, and the next one, always known, forever and ever...
  

I wouldn't like to be omniscient. It seems, very, very, boring.