Tolerance

A lot of pagan religions had many gods to explain the various things that happen to us.  Some of the gods seemed to like us and others didn't.  One thing most of them had in common was that they liked to be bribed if we wanted them to favor us.

Most of the gods had priests who maintained their temples or places of worship and coincidental managed to live quite nicely from the offerings to the gods.

Did the bribes produce results?

Well you never knew if the gods would look upon your offering favorably, but sometimes you got what you asked for and you would make a thanks offering.

When you didn't you needed to increase the bribe next time if you wanted success.

The gods who were mischievous also needed to be bribed to ward off the evil they might cause.

Some of these religions are still practiced today although for most Americans they seem like superstition.  Their adherents continue their traditions and seem none the worse for it.

The movement to a single god is attributed to the Israelites, although there is some evidence that one of the Egyptian Pharaoh's may have believed in a single god, except he himself was also a god who had to be obeyed.

The reduction to a single god is documented in the old testament where the god of the Israelite's wins various competitions to prove his dominance.

In fact, those passages seem to indicate the other gods did exist, they just were nothing in comparison to the god of the Israelites.

That evolved over time into there being only a single god which translated into Christian and Islam beliefs.

At least in Christian belief, we have lots of god helpers in the angels and the saints as well as the fact that in some sects the single god has three different natures.  In fact it is interesting that the only god somehow had a son who is in fact the same god as the father although for most appearances he was separate and made to suffer for our sins.

Anything that seems incredulous is of course explained as a mystery that we have to accept on faith, words that I am sure were used from our earliest days.

Religion is a very personnel thing.  It becomes a bit of an issue when those who practice a particular one think they can impose those values on others.

I accept the fact that some things about the universe and its creation are, at least at this time, unexplainable.  Whether some conscious being was the cause is the problematic part, since the unanswered question would be where did he/she come from?  It would be even odder if such a being got involved in the individual affairs of his creations because one prayed better than another or made a bigger donation.

Everyone is of course entitle to believe whatever they want.  They need to realize that everyone else shares that same right.