Bev; I disagree that you have to be exposed to something to be tolerant or intolerant. There are intolerant people who condemn/hate/discriminate against people they've never met because of some attribute or behavior of that person. Look at laws that discriminate...anti-gay marriage, Jim Crow laws, church rules against women priests, etc. These have nothing to do with the individuals involved; it is intolerance against entire groups of people. In fact, I'd say that if you know someone and don't like them, it is more of a dislike for THAT person, not intolerance per se.
Tolerant to me means accepting someone (or a group of 'someones') as they are without discriminating or trying to change them. You don't have to like or dislike them, just allow them to be/believe/live the way they want. Obviously there are clashes when one groups beliefs come up against the other groups beliefs; that's where negotiation and compromise come in.
Intolerance isn't always a bad thing. There are lots of things that we, as individuals and a society SHOULDN'T tolerate. Crime, abuse, discrimination, etc. That's where judgment comes in...deciding what is actually a threat to social order (murder, robbery, etc), and what is merely an offense to someone's idea of 'right', but doesn't hurt anyone (homosexuality, different religious views, etc.). And yes, I've known some atheists who were as intolerant of other people's beliefs as those who try to push their religion on others.
I brought up the past intolerance of the Christian churches to explain why I said that I understood why someone like Khalid al-Mansour might think that Christians are trying to wipe out Islam.
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