This has led me to where--
I've ended up at Emerson's proposal
that all religions should have one member.
This idea, incidentally, was very important to Utopos,
who was the founder of Thomas More's
fictional island of Utopia.
Now, I bring this up for three reasons.
One is because 2016 will mark the 500th anniversary
of Thomas More's novel, Utopia.
Second, because More had some rather enlightened things
to say about religious tolerance.
And three, because I have a book about American utopian
communities coming out next year.
While the Utopians of More's novel believe, quote,
"that there is a single divine power unknown, eternal,
infinite, inexplicable, and quite beyond the grasp
of the human mind," they also reserve their harshest
punishments of anything in Utopia--
their harshest punishment, exile and slavery--
for anyone who becomes too zealous
a proselytizer of one religion.
And so here's a crucial passage--
just a crucial, short little passage from Thomas More's
Utopia.
"Utopos made this law, not only to preserve the peace,
which he saw being completely destroyed
by endless disputes and implacable feuds,
but also because he thought it was in the best
interest of religion itself.
He didn't presume to say which creed was right.
Apparently, he considered it possible that God
made different people believe different things because he
wanted to be worshipped in many different ways."
Isn't that a beautiful notion of a [? pancreatic ?] religion?