Quote:
Originally Posted by Orruar
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Maybe it's less about convincing other people than it is about learning to better articulate and hone our own beliefs.
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Absolutely, and there is no better path to understanding than exploring other perspectives. I refine my views regularly, but the principles behind them do not change and I would expect the same to be true for other rational human beings. Those principles are:
1. Be not a nuisance
2. Behave responsibly
The principles directly reflect what I value most in my life: peace. I hate fighting and generally just want to be left alone. At the same time I hold reason and skepticism (eww an -ism, I know) in high regard since it is those qualities, the exceptional ability to consider and act outside of primal impulse that distinguishes man from most other creatures.
Differing principles allow for divergent conclusions given the same data even among comparable intellects. Unfortunately we can almost always find contradictory data sets, each created to validate the views of their collectors and since none of the rest of us have the time to conduct the research first-hand, we are generally inclined to choose the data that supports our world view. So we are left with people arguing from two entirely different worlds, often reluctant to understand or even view another world for fear that their own might be a farce. An open mind is an extraordinary rarity and is something most people are incapable of despite the low bar of admission.
At the end of the day I am mostly interested in learning how people make the decisions they do.