I think Mr Agenda pegged it. People change their own minds with comforting frequency. For instance, I no longer think that Elizabeth II would be a better monarch if she:
1. Held a firecracker between her teeth.
2. Lit the firecracker.
3. Jammed her head up her arse.
But people have a natural resistance to being compelled to do anything. If, for example, you constantly harangue a believer with arguments about why religious belief is silly and largely counter-productive, she's likely to dig in her heels. Similarly, no atheist of my accquaintence have ever converted simply because theists told him about hell-fire, damnation, and God's love (wonder why).
But people DO change their own minds and for their own reasons (hopefully, those reasons include sober reflection and serious thinking). None of us have the same belief-set (religious or otherwise) that we had as children. I'm 43 years old, and I've changed, altered or amended some long held beliefs in just the last few years. But I'd be hard-pressed to think of a single thing about which I've changed my mind the proximate cause of which was someone else's say-so.
Boru
1. Held a firecracker between her teeth.
2. Lit the firecracker.
3. Jammed her head up her arse.
But people have a natural resistance to being compelled to do anything. If, for example, you constantly harangue a believer with arguments about why religious belief is silly and largely counter-productive, she's likely to dig in her heels. Similarly, no atheist of my accquaintence have ever converted simply because theists told him about hell-fire, damnation, and God's love (wonder why).
But people DO change their own minds and for their own reasons (hopefully, those reasons include sober reflection and serious thinking). None of us have the same belief-set (religious or otherwise) that we had as children. I'm 43 years old, and I've changed, altered or amended some long held beliefs in just the last few years. But I'd be hard-pressed to think of a single thing about which I've changed my mind the proximate cause of which was someone else's say-so.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
