As Don says, Buddhism is an interesting example of a very tolerent religion which encourages its followers to question the fundamentals of Buddhist doctrine.

It is, of course, not monothestic as it seems many of the religions of the more belligerent protagonists of all sides seem to be.

I have to declare an interest here - I took Tibetan Buddhist teaching for a while (including from HRH The Dalai Lama at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester), and believe their attitude to other religions could be an example worth following.

They see all living beings as equal, each individual travelling along the path to enlightenment, often getting waylaid etc. So far, perhaps not so different from the other major faiths. If however you generate negative karma by your own actions causing harm to other living beings you will generate negative karma, and this'll come back an bite you in the backside in the future. You are not being punished by a vengeful God or whatever, you have transgressed a natural law and as Newton states, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Tibetan Buddhists do not think people who live according to other faiths are wrong - they are simply on a different path - and that is an idea that really needs to be taken on board in this day and age, especially by the bickering Christians and Muslims who need to rediscover compassion towards others in order to move away from this dangerous situation we found ourselves in now.

stigWeard