One more about that Golden Rule thing...

Tolerance for other religions, which includes the category of non-believers as well, can only occur if there is a mutual respect for the other person's point of view.  But such a respect can only be established if the following conditions are met:

• No assumption of superiority.  This is, perhaps, the most difficult to overcome.  Herr Ratzinger, for instance, loses points when he insists that Christianity is the cause of the Enlightenment (it wasn't) or that Christian values are what exclusively hold society and families together (they aren't).  I may seem a bit of a hypocrite for being the one to point these out, but I do not do so under the assumption that Christianity is somehow inherently flawed as a religion or point of view.  It only takes a quick perusal at Veritatis Splendor, for instance, to see why its language shows a Christian-superior attitude that I do not abide.
• No recruitment drive.  It is a moral offense to try to recruit someone, whose soul or life is seen as in "dire peril" simply because they do not believe the same things that you do.  Of course, in order to even begin a recruitment drive, you have to start with an assumption of superiority in the first place.  If you want people to join your cause, lead by example, not through propaganda.  This goes for Christopher Hitchens as easily as it does for Jack Chick.  Tone it down a bit, and realize that we are all different people and that we are never going to recruit certain people to our cause, no matter how we try.
• Keep the supernatural personal, but consider that objective reality wins.  Even if you are the most die-hard atheist, you have to come to terms with the fact that the human brain is designed to pick up patterns and draw connections that may not be logical or have any rational basis.  For instance, something like this may not be easily explained by science, but perhaps it does not have to be in order for us all to draw individual, personal conclusions.  On the other hand, your personal faith is not going to help you overcome gravity enough to enable you to jump from the top of a skyscraper, nor would it help you argue your way out of a parking ticket.  There is a concrete universe with concrete laws, and human ethical systems that exist outside of the realm of personal faith.
• In the gray zone of ethical dilemmas, consider compassion for existing fellow human beings who have equal rights as the primary objective.  If possible, err on the side of caution.  But consider the difference between equal and equitable, as discussed in detail later.  The biological definition of human life not a single, easily explained binary state, and it is less than compassionate to condemn others for seeing it differently than you.  To the converse, one who is biologically human according to all science is an ethical end.