Cheers! Yes I think arrogance and ideology are always a dangerous combination. And of course religions aren't the only ideologies - I have equal reservations towards arrogant militant atheism =) I guess we find these attitudes everywhere; some who strictly believe in science-based medicine see all of 'alternative medicine' as dangerous commercial hoax and superstition, and want to see all of alternative medicine banned. I think that is an arrogant attitude. And similarly, there are those who believe in alternative medicine only, and loathe the 'conventional medicine' thinking that holistic alternative approach is superior...

So, if you ask me, we'd always better just stay away from arrogance and have some tolerance to listening to others, even when they have different set of beliefs. So, it is always nice to meet a person who is a honest believer in a religious tradition, combining that with non-arrogant attitude. Just like you say - it doesn't mean that one should adopt foreign gods nor think that their gods were true; but one can still respect a lot of their art, culture, handcraft skills, and moreover their right to existence =)

About a thousand years ago, when the king of Sweden converted to Catholic Christian faith, pagan Finland was in between western Catholic realm, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity realm. Both realms raced to conquer pagan lands of Finland, The Sweden even launched crusades approved by The Pope. If you ask me, two sects of the Christian faith fighting each other over conquering territory - that has only that little to do with the spiritual gospel of the faith. But those who have the power, they are always good at using faith and ideology to justify their conquering of new territory...

Oh well. But the Sweden grew to be a regional superpower. By the mid 1600's they had not only conquered the most of Finland, but also a large region of what now are the Baltic States. Sweden even had a small colony in the North America, Delaware region. The King of Sweden appreciated the pioneering skills of Eastern Finnish people who practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, so there was a minor Finnish influence already around 1650 AD. Hehe, and I have sometimes joked that when it comes to the history of USA, the Finnish influence wasn't minor, but proved to be decisive. The very independence of USA is thanks to a second-generation Finnish settler.