Recently, I have had reason to change some ideas or at least hold on to them less tightly than I did before. I definitely feel a significantly diminished need to defend my previously held thoughts to others than I have in the past. I am also much more comfortable with people who hold a differeing view on this topic than I have before. This is a bigger deal than discovering brussel sprouts are actually tasty even though I had reservations before I tried them. I am talking about deeply held beliefs that have existed for a long time.

So I am curious what changes your mind?

Interesting question, Christina.

I think, for me, it has to do with my perspective.

When a new experience put me in a place I never thought possible before, sometimes it surprised me; the choices I made.

For example, someone young and healthy, when looking at an old and feeble or homeless person who perhaps has a debilitating illness, might say to a friend:

'if I ever get like that, just shoot me.'

When you actually stand in those shoes, maybe you would change your mind.

A favorite Bob Dylan song says it really well for me:

'...Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People’d call, say, beware doll, you’re bound to fall
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?...'

Kris Kristopherson also said it well when he wrote:

'...Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...'

xo

It's hard to say for sure, but to change my mind on beliefs that I've held deeply for years, I would probably need the contradicting information to slap me in the face--be given gobs of time to process the information, and then gobs more time to accept what I was about to change.

Most often it is the example of people more courageous than myself.

A couple of Mojitos and nice perfume!

love. that changes my mind.

it has in the past, and i'm sure it will in the future. there's been at least one time, when i was much younger, that i was willing to give up everything for the chance to be someone.

unfortunately, they didn't want me. or maybe they did, and they didn't want to admit it.

but yes, i would say it would be love. love that made me accept things about my mom that i would not have otherwise been able to accept.

i will amend that...love & time.

Jessyka, this is beautiful and sad. And I don't think I know a better combination, right now.

thanks mark...

god, i was 19, and it *still* brings tears to my eyes sometimes when i think about it...

but only sometimes.

What changes my mind: either not having enough money to do it or having too many beers to know the difference.

I am a mental may fly...
... the passage of time changes my mind.
...
...
or.. my relative distance to fruit

Relationships.

Meeting someone with a different expereince, and coming around to see this person's point of view. All really major "changes of mind" in my life has happened this way.

For example, I grew up having "doubts" about the moral implications of homosexuality. Until I met and got to know a gay person. That obviously changed the way I thought about a lot of things.

Then there is that gradual change that I think has to do whit realizing who you really are. But that is difficult to spot at times, it happens slowly.

That is a great example. One that touches me often.

Jessyka's got a great combo, too - love & time. Those are definitely two of the biggest factors of change in my life, or at least they have been.

I was thinking time was the bigger of the two lately, until I started talking to some friends, both new and old, and they reminded me the scope and depth of love...

Relationships... yep. Basic, simple, human relationships.

And nature. Sometimes, the outside just makes ya want to change.

Thanks for the thoughts. I find them interesting. Anyone want to share some of the major mind changes made thus far in one's life?

I can think of two. The first has to do with politics. While I fall to the right when it comes to political classifications (even though I keep myself classified as an independant and refuse to be a single issue voter), I used to (when I was young, impetuous, and naive) think quite negatively of the people I knew who aligned themselves in opposite camps as me. Now I can often see their point of view and appreciate why they hold those ideals even if I choose not to agree or arrange my prioritization of the issues in the same order they do.

The second is the one I alluded to earlier. It happened quite recently. I have been involved in a Bible Study of the book of Genesis. I never expected myself to have such a change in perspective as a result of the creation accounts as I did. I firmly held specific ideas about the creation stories in Genesis, and I was pretty convinced that people who thought differently than I were putting God in a box and limiting him. I actally came to discover that I was doing that very thing by holding my viewpoints so tightly. I came to see that there is a lot more white space in the creation story than I had previously realized, and as a result there was plenty of room for a variety of takes on the stories.

please don't turn this into a creationism/id is it science/bible/christian thing. I was simply telling my story.

I wouldn't dream of it. Thanks for sharing!

Now Keith, won't you admit that you at least gave it pause?


And ditto on the thanks for sharing, Christina!

What makes me change my mind?

My old one getting worn out!

for me it's usually a lack of peace.

i'm sure that other factors come into play--relationships, courageous examples, love.

and a lot happens veeeeery slowly. i'll think i believe something, but then i look at the decisions i make, how i share my life with people, the impact i receive from their lives etc. i don't always see what i expect to see, instead it's that i was wrong about myself.

i'd think i'm conservative (especially since that's what i associated with serious faith when it came to high school/college years), but then everything i really feel deep down and how i react with people says the contrary. it's only just in the last couple of years that i've embraced that.

granted, i don't care about that in an identity sense. i'm not too worried about how others see me politically etc. but i don't have to struggle so hard within to agree with them anymore. to be "family" in the natural or spiritual sense doesn't require that we draw all the same conclusions from our spiritual experiences/lives. that's one of the biggest things i'm learning.

and i feel more peace. if something doesn't work, i don't feel peaceful. so then i usually dig more deeply to find out why. that's what creates change for me and some of my most rooted stances/choices.

been ponderin' on this one for awhile now...

What makes me change my mind. Seems like we're not talking about something like ordering a tuna melt instead of a freshly grilled cheeseburger here... soo.....

I would have to say that a well thought out, sound argument with convincing evidence would (and has over the years) change(d) my mind.

In other words the exact opposite of what I hear out of many pulpits, political stumps and media types these days...

To banter further, I notice that people (including myself from time to time) tend to make at least one of the following mistakes when "making up their mind" about something:

1. Do not examine all the available evidence.
2. Mishandle the available evidence (e.g. give more weight to some evidence than other so as to slant the conclusion toward some preconceived notion, etc.).
3. Draw a conclusion which has no rational merit (even if they HAVE done #'s 1 & 2).
4. Do not accept the existence of objective truth (this should go without saying, but sadly needs to be mentioned).
5. Allow emotion (what we may feel is true) to overrule our rational objectivity (what is true) about a matter (lawyers make millions of dollars tricking juries to fall for this one).

Any one of these is a death sentence to truth.

Truth... yeah, that or the whiff of a nice freshly grilled cheeseburger....