Will There Ever be Progress in Religious Tolerance

Since the beginning of recorded history there have been people killing other people over religion. There are two schools of thought about the ability of humans to navigate life together on this planet. One is they are getting better at it, the other there is no progress. When one reads about killing over religion still going on around the world the latter , no progress, seems most accurate.

Certainly marriage across branches of Christianity and other faiths has increased as has inter racial marriage. We can put that in the "plus" column. When I was growing up in rural Iowa neither of these was considered acceptable. Yet, taboos continue in other places. 

I recall going to a high school graduation night near my home town. The speaker was a prominent faculty member in a Department of Religion at one of the universities in the state. He told of a couple, one Catholic the other Protestant, who wanted to marry and came to visit him. "I had to tell them," he said, "Really there is no hope for a marriage."

With the hostility toward outside religions all around the world, I don't see the point in "missionaries." If a missionary converts some locals to Christianity and then they are murdered because of it, what has been accomplished?

We have to remember there are groups and individuals who benefit from persecuting people of other races and religions. Whatever progress might be made runs up against the vested interests of clergy, politicians and business that thrive on one religion and are threatened by another.