I've been trying to figure this out also, being firm on my own opinion but also being able to tolerate other ones. Without judgment, there would be nothing but equality, as a "better" opinion or "worse" opinion wouldn't exist. Everyone judges and for opinions I'd say there needs to be some judgment involved if you wish to have any control over the opinions you hold to make your belief system more congruent with how you want to be. But at the same time judging an opinion is not necessarily the same as judging a person. You can judge someone's opinion as "bad" while still realizing that it doesn't define who they are.
However, I was thinking about this issue some time ago and started to realize that everyone's opinion is actually right given their underlying assumptions. If you had those same underlying assumptions, chances are you'd see the opinion as a right one as well. Change those assumptions, and certain opinions don't seem correct anymore. So saying that someone is wrong is really just saying that their opinion isn't valid under your assumptions, when really the person is stating their opinion given their assumptions, not yours. They themselves are not wrong, they're right, but viewing their opinion from another perspective, which happens whenever one person looks at another person's opinion, it could very well be wrong.
I see the main step as viewing a person's opinion separately from them as a person. Opinions are just a byproduct of the assumptions everyone has about reality, perhaps understanding those better could aid in being more accepting and tolerant of others.  |