What are some benefits of living in a multi faith society?

It’s like going to a restaurant with a menu instead of having to go everyday to a place that only serves one thing and you may not like it. A multi faith society allows you to find the faith or practice that give you the greatest spiritual nourishment. And no one forces you to think the way they do.

Learning tolerance.

Well technically we do live in a multi faith society because there are people of different faith everywhere in the USA. The benefits is learning to tolerate people of different views. The problem is that some people will not tolerate people of different beliefs.

@zenvelo beat me to it.

But just to add, people still might be trying force you to think the way they do. The difference when you grow up around diversity, though, is that at least you have awareness of there being alternatives.
At least, that was my experience. I grew up with two parents differing in views, and surrounded by other cultures, beliefs and faiths. It took me getting older to be able to see that I was being taught one way by one of my parents, but with the other perspectives I had still grown around, I was able to see that what I had been taught wasn’t the sole answer.

shoot and @janbb and @Mikewlf337 too now… type fingers, type!

It broadens your horizons and allows you mind to be more free in thinking about faith. I don’t think an open, self-deciding mind is ever a bad thing.

I think it’s very rare that someone who is intolerant learns tolerance by living in a diverse society. Rather, the advantage of a diverse society is that you have the right to practice your faith over the objections of all the other faiths who each think they are the only “true” faith.

Enjoying a wider, more richly detailed spectrum of life.
For many years I was one of a handful of non-Thai who were lucky enough to be invited to the yearly Buddhist blessing of a favorite restaurant. The monks flipped a little good luck water in my face and gave out little golden trinkets after the hour-long continuous chant [when one monk pauses another fills in the gap]. It was an honor and a pleasure to share this with my Thai friends.

What @HungryGuy said. I also think that societies with different faiths included within help with cultural evolution and expansion, (Take that as you shall.) since you’re not being stagnated by one ideology only, and we’ve seen what that can do in certain countries or, if horror movies have any truth to them, small backwater towns. XD

All good answers. Unfortunately, every good has its evil twin. Every outward strength hides an inner weakness. Too much happening in the same place at the same time is known as confusion. Cultural tolerance broader views have the nasty tendency of being their own worst enemy. Sad to say, but true, laws that provide for cultural diversity and equality of viewpoints permits into the national whole those elements that work against the national body. Those same laws we all enjoy allow destructive groups such as communism, neo-nazis, kkk, as well as those with bleeding hearts but no singular focus or will toward discrimination, both of which are necessary for national unity. After all, the health and functionality of any organ depends upon all of its individual cells working in unison toward a single purpose.

@starsofeight Those same laws we all enjoy allow destructive groups such as communism, neo-nazis, kkk, as well as those with bleeding hearts but no singular focus or will toward discrimination, both of which are necessary for national unity.

Troo dat, but such organizations have less power in multifaith societies, and in the past when such things were singular, they gave rise to rebellion and a change of things. Which also proves you right when you say that all aspects, dark and light, are vital for national unity. I’ll base that of the French revolution, unless that was all bs lol.

On the word of weaknesses though such as you mentioned, better and more tolerable faiths or organizations also have less power. I suppose in this case we have to look at the laws which govern them, and what those are based on. I rather enjoy being able to be a woman that isn’t a slave though lol. Guess I just roll with the punches in our hectic and confused societies, but I still say chaos is better than stagnation. Of course, I suppose the latter doesn’t need one idea to rule all for it to exist, if you look at the dark ages…plenty of faiths and shit there. I guess it was a matter of who hit the hardest.
Might still be this way as of now, too.

Stagnation is death. Life nation is motion, and lots of it. With motion comes direction. Society is like Brownian movement – a chaotic state seeking balance. But then, balance is stagnation, and must therefore be held in check by change. Nothing may be vital and living without these twins at odds.

We may not think only that every light has its dark, or every up has its down. We must see it as going up and going down, as going light and going dark. There are many such directions, and all of them seek stagnation. We must see, within that, those we bump into as we go up or down, and the changes, sometimes violent, that result.

I take it as axiomatic that the whole, as is stated in the Gospel according to Thomas, is a movement and a rest. We may all be actors on the same stage, but no one of us is the play. I, personally, take comfort in my small role. I am at ease there, and loyal to it.

THANK YOU EVERYONE

Appreciation of diversity.

The biggest one for me is that it has the potential to teach tolerance.

I’ve always been of the opinion that people inherently want to get along, and can, if they just get a chance to talk things over calmly. I think living in a multi-faith society has the potential to open up this kind of dialogue. Whether we take advantage of that aspect of it or not is really up to the individual.