Social Tolerance or Social Ignorance

Krabi01Sep06065
Image by jestre aka zann.

Social tolerance or social ignorance?

I just came back from a trip in Krabi, Thailand
During the trip, i had this conversation on religious topics with a friend, which in turn sparked a thought in my mind;

Tolerance demands understanding,
Ignorance is the direct inverse of that

Singaporean, do we have tolerance to the different practice of other religions?
Ignorance Perhaps.
No doubt there are multitudes of cultures and religions in Singapore, we grew up in an environment where a major festive from all religion is made a national holiday.
But people seldom or never bothered to truly understand what other people's culture and religion are about.

The pointing finger? Lies in education and parenting.
"Don’t ask, walk away, don’t be rude"
Instead of a proper explanation of what is going on, we were taught and programmed to either not rise questions or simply to mind our own business.

What is Buddhism? Taoism? Christianity? Islam? Hinduism? Jewism?…etc

We see different people celebrating different festivals.
We see different religion performing difference rituals.
Do we care? Do we seek to understand? Do we question? Or do we undermine?

We simply do not care.