Religious Tolerance (or lack thereof)

This may not be the most proper board for this question, but I really can't think of anywhere else to put it. If any of the mods find somewhere better let me know. Anyways...

I've never been a very religious person. I've believed that there is some kind of higher power, but not necessarily the way Christians, Muslims, or whomever feels. If anything I've always felt a little more closer to Zen concepts, but nothing I could say I follow "religiously."

My main question is why each of the religions feel that they--and only they--are right? I know that it isn't necessarily the way every Christian, or every Muslim, or every Hindu thinks. But there's so many different beliefs out there; they can't all be right, and I'd be willing to put my money up that none of them have it exactly right. But most of the religious people I've seen feel that you are a lesser person if you don't think the same thing they do. That you're damned to Hell (or the equivalent) for eternity if you don't change your ways and live like them. Why is that? Why aren't people just happy knowing that they'll go to their version of Heaven as long as they follow the rules of their prophet?

This will probably get me flamed, but the ones I notice that are really bad about this are Christians. A lot of them aren't even content knowing that you follow the teachings of Christ; you have to be Baptist, or Lutheran, or whatever denomination they follow. For some you even have to go to their particular church. It just seems quite contradictory to me, not a very "Christian" way of treating people. What happened to "Judge not lest ye be judged?"

And to end my rant, what is the point of a physical church anyways? I might be mistaken, but I don't remember hearing anywhere in the Bible about Jesus preaching to people with a choir and an altar. I must have missed the verse where he finally was able to get enough donations for the gym. The people who travel from city to city without a solid home and preach their interpretation of His words are looked down upon as lunatics most of the time. Isn't that a little bit more like how he did things?

I doubt your going to get flamed for this post, you are being very polite and articulate in the way your are expressing your opnion.

Now The main reason I think that is seems like its mostly christians who do the hating on other religions, Is basically because This is a mostly christian country. Now consider i work at a place that has 50 people(which I do) and there all christian(which they are) and only One out of that 50 is beligerant, ignorant and offensive to people to people who do not share his particular faith(which i work with a guy like that). Now 1 out of fifty might not seem like a lot. but considering a large portion of the U.S. is christian or was raised that way. Thats A whole lot of idiots! Most of the guys i work with are helpful, courteous , respectful and just great guys. I'm not going to let that One person give me a bad impression for all christians. Just keep in mind it would be the same thing if the country was all jewish or muslim. One person out of X number of people would be loud,obnoxious and leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The reason most religions aren't willing to be open to other faiths being right , is in my opnion to control people and keep them from leaving that particular sect. I mean if you could go to heaven and not bother going to place of worship. eat what you want , say what you want , do alot of what you want then i doubt people would be so willing to go to their regular place of worship.

Not only that but People LOVE being on a winning team. We can't help it.

Well, if your Religion (whatever it is) has the correct answer, then you pretty much have to think that anyone who doesn't believe what you do is wrong. When the religous claim belief as knowledge, it locks them into that box of having to condemn anyone who doesn't share that belief.

What is the percieved validity of a Religion based on? Right. It's based on how many followers it has. Many people who believe, think that the more people there are who share that belief, the more likely it is to be correct. They use numbers to shore up their own self-doubt, since their dogma teaches them that doubt is wrong. Anyone who dosn't believe the same is actually attacking their belief by not agreeing with it. If you don't agree, you must think it's wrong.

This is what leads to religous intolorance. People don't like to be reminded that what they believe could be wrong.