I’m only 26 years old, but my short observation is that this kind of intelligence is born into us, but easily lost.
The problems we face as a species, and I hate using that word, whether they be hypocrisy or ignorance are too easy.
Don’t you find it so easy to be bad? So easy its good. I don’t mean personally and in the present, but looking back at ourselves.
How can we get rid of this hypocrisy? Its too easy to be so.

There are things deeper than this but what time do we allow ourselves to have?

I agree with you about the way people tend to try and replicate results. It is because of this practice that I think religion has grown as rapidly as it has. People have started to think that one path is applicable to many. Some fail to realize that their results are theirs alone. It is because of this that their desire to universalize beliefs appears in the first place.

Ruda

I would say that tolerance of intolerance is exactly what I mean. It seems that even a person’s doubt is sometimes regarded as “intolerance.” When the intolerance is simply expressed in conversation without anger or hate, I think it should definitely be tolerated. When we step into violence and persecution, they would be intolerable not because of their direction at religious beliefs but because of their intrinsic nature. Violence for example is something that would not be desired in any circumstance.

My focus in this post was mainly on the ability of people to express opinions intelligently, because it sometimes seems that even this is regarded as “intolerance.”

The problem is not that people think their religion is superior, as this is necessary to make any choice. But it is in their belief that their choice is applicable to everyone. Even the ability to understand doubt on another person’s part would be an improvement over taking offense. This is also exacerbated by the fact that most do not view religion as a choice in faith but a kind of universal truth. There must be some improvements that can be made to the current situation short of doing away with religion.

Many, if not most, religions believe that theirs is the “true way” and that all other paths will not lead to the highest spiritual attainment. They believe that the doctrine (and not the pathwork that each individual makes, using the tools the doctrine provides) is what leads there, resulting in prejudice toward all other paths except for the one they adhere to.

I would like to attribute this prejudice (initially) to those adherents who have achieved great results using a specific method of communing with the divine… miraculous, even. They are so convinced that their experience can be replicated by all others that they want to convince everyone else that they have the recipe for success. Well intended, no doubt, but just as a shoe does not fit every foot, mystical experience is also unique and personal.

Then the prejudice is further proliferated by those who have not had a personal mystical experience but who believe that if they follow the recipe by rote that they too will achieve the desired result simply by virtue of making the effort.

As long as the end result as opposed to the journey is deemed to be the motivating factor to religious experience, conflict will exist.

When one identifies oneself with a particular religion, one automatically separates oneself from any other religion. Once such a separation is made, there will always be conflict and hypocrisy. It is inevitable. Identification creates separation; separation creates conflict.