Aristotle said “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
I love this quote. I love the open-mindedness of it, and I think of myself as educated, open to new ideas, and considerate of other points of view.
It is commonly accepted etiquette that one should never discuss sex, money, religion or politics in polite company.
There is a conflict for me between these two ideas: the acceptance of alternative ideas and the avoidance of alternative views.
I conversed with a new acquaintance this past weekend that left me drained within 15-20 minutes of our first conversation. I started out the conversation standing, then sitting, then lounging, then laying down, and it was mostly that I tired of being weighed down with what I viewed as nonsense being presented as fact. In the very short discussion, which touched upon the topics of artificial intelligence, computer based emotion, intelligent design, nature as religion, human nature, man-made vs. natural, humanism, addiction, belief, faith, and trees, I found myself defending facts against ideas, emotion, and opinion.
To say I did not enjoy the conversation is not entirely true, but I don’t want to ever do it in the same way again. It wavered with contradiction, loosely supported ‘truths’, anonymous statistics and studies without citation or source, and a metric ton of assumption and prediction. Worse yet, these were on both sides of the argument. I should have been more ready to defend my views with conviction.
You can have your beliefs, but please don’t trample mine in the process of sharing yours. In the mean time, I will do a better job of preparing the defense of my beliefs.
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