What happens when two people who think differently talk to one another?

Question

What happens if people read each others emails and yahoo answers questions and yahoo answers emails,

and they see the other persons ideas,

and they allow those ideas to be in their head, bouncing off the ideas that they had before, and the ideas are in there bouncing off one another, and slowly people change and grow,

is this not the mansions of thought we all desire?

Or is your mind a church with the doors closed, and your mind preaches to the choir. Yours is a church built on quick sand and it will sink.

Mine is a mansion built on rock. Solid.

Share with me an idea, in through the door it will come, and float around, and touch my other thoughts, and touch my soul, and forever I will be

changed

Answer 1

Poor ole DuckPhup, missing out on good ideas with all that hatred of the soul. What can possibly possess a person to have so much hatred of others that they cannot control their endless ranting long enough to answer a simple question?

Oh, I guess I answered that .... "possess" .... well, perhaps DuckPhup is possessed, by what we don't know.

To answer your question, which btw is an old one dating back to the 1960's, is an easy one to answer. When two people exchange ideas in the way you've described, they become more tolerant of the other person.

Answer 2

Why does your question make me want to sip a jumbo latte while listening to bongos in the background, as you recite it like poetry, and the place lights up with snapping fingers when you're done?
Groovy man, groovy....let us all toss away the inhibitions of programmed religious dogma, and allow our minds to embrace the new ideas and deep emotions of our fellow man-animals here on this watery blue ball in space. **snap snap snap**
Dig it man, LOL

Answer 3

I agree - I will think and mull over every comment -whether it be religious or not. Like I've said countless times, I have many Christian, Muslim and Hindu friends and we ALL talk about our beliefs. The difference with them and the people here is that THEY respect my beliefs and we questions eachother's beliefs with respect and admiration and learn from one another...

Answer 4

Ummm Jim the meds kicking in? I think we all see what happens when we try to communicate.

Answer 5

The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld.

Answer 6

Deep woooo

Answer 7

I think that the brains of rational people and 'believers' are wired differently. There are some subtleties at work, which seem to escape the notice of most people. They have to do with the nature of 'belief'.

A rational person might say "I believe in the Big Bang." A religious person might say "I believe in creation, as described in Genesis." But these statements are not even remotely similar, with respect to what is meant by the word 'believe'.

For the rational person, the statement of 'belief' in the Big Bang means that they understand that the concept provides a scientifically and mathematically consistent explanation, congruent with the evidence, which accounts for the evolution of the universe from a fraction of a second after the initiating event, up until the present. When the 'inflationary model' came to the fore, rational people said "Well, good... that clears up a few questions and makes things even more coherent." NOBODY threw up their arms and wailed "Oh, no... oh, no... ain't so... ain't so... the Big Bang is the inerrant truth... not this ridiculous, atheistic 'inflationary' model."

See... when we say "I believe in the Big Bang", we don't really mean the same thing as the religious person means when he says "I believe in creation, as described in Genesis," or "I believe in God." Our 'belief' in the Big Bang (or anything else) isn't really a 'belief'... it is more properly a 'paradigm'... a useful way of looking at something, or thinking about something. If additional information is uncovered that adds to the conceptual model, that is a good thing... not a disaster. If part of the conceptual model is discovered to be incorrect, and must be tossed in the trash and replaced with something completely different... that is also a good thing... not the end of the world as we know it. And often, no matter how highly confident we may be of the accuracy or completeness of a particular paradigm, we may have reason to apply a DIFFERENT paradigm to the same thing, in an effort to tease out new insights; for example, we might want to contemplate the potential implications of a change to a theory from the perspective of the Tao Te Ching, the Gaia hypothesis, or ecological homeostasis. We KNOW that all theories are approximations... and that is OK. We KNOW that we don't have all the answers... and that is OK, too. There is nothing wrong with saying "We don't know... yet; but we're working on it."

But these modes of thinking, perceiving, contemplating and understanding are utterly alien to the 'religious' mind. For the religious mind, a 'belief' is not a paradigm... not a useful way of thinking about something... it is an internalized conviction that one knows the absolute 'truth' pertaining to some aspect of existence and/or fundamental reality. 'Beliefs' are one of the key interpretive component filters of the religious person's 'self-description'... a part of what DEFINES them as a person... the very thing that creates their world-view... an underpinning of their 'subjective reality'. Any challenge to one of these internalized 'beliefs' is perceived and interpreted as a vital threat... an attack upon the 'self-description'... and an assault upon their subjective reality.

And here is the key difference: When there is a change in one of the paradigms dealing with a scientific concept, or a new insight into the workings of the universe, to the 'rational' person it merely constitutes an interesting new piece of knowledge and understanding... a new insight, to be appropriately incorporated into one's world-view However, if that same new insight, or piece of information (a feature of the universe, for example) seems to threaten a tenet of Christianity, everybody goes to battle stations, goes into 'damage control' mode, for fear that the whole edifice will come crashing down... and ultimately, it will.

So, when a fundie disparages evolution, for example, it really has nothing to do with a genuine, intellectual dispute regarding scientific details... they are generally scientifically illiterate, anyway. Any 'scientific' arguments that they present are inevitably not even understood... they are just lifted from the pre-packaged lies, misrepresentations and pseudo-science that are found on dozens of 'Liars for Jesus' (LFJ) web sites, and parroted. They are in a battle. They are trying to sink science before science sinks them. They are desperate... and science is (mostly, and unfortunately) oblivious to the fact that they are even in a fight, and that somebody is trying to sink them. They are just blithely bopping along, doing what science does... trying to figure out how nature works.

No... none of this has anything to do with a mere disagreement pertaining to evidence and understanding. It has to do with minds that deal with fundamental issues in an entirely different way. It has to do with a flexible, open-minded (willing to honestly consider alternative possibilities), intellectually honest (willing to question and doubt one's own presumptions) curiosity about the universe, contending with a rigid, unyielding world-view that depends from a conviction that certain delusional faith-based (willful ignorance and magical, wishful thinking) 'beliefs' represent the absolute 'truth' of reality.

We might as well be talking to an alien species, from a distant planet.

When the religious enter a venue like this one, they are (generally) NOT seeking answers, or new information... these might cause them to QUESTION their beliefs, or might put their beliefs at risk. No... they are closed-minded, seeking only VALIDATION of their beliefs... and hence, of their self-description.

*****************

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Answer 8

it is always good to share ideas and opinions...

my mind is not shut.....funny..... It always seems like I have too many windows open in my mind.....it lets all the wind blow through....it gets real windy up there....!!!!

Answer 9

Friendship happens. That was very beautiful, a jim♥darwin classic :)

Answer 10

Usually they disagree. Oftentimes violently...oh that's just when I haven't taken enough of my meds. Sorry.