Fixed Opinions.

[haggis]

People shouldn't have set and fixed opinions.  Today I may believe in God, tomorrow I might not.  Got to be flexible in your thinking.  Today I may post that people shouldn't have fixed opinions, but tell me why they should and tomorrow I'll probably agree with you.  Don't really see why it matters.

[Reuben]

If someone can prove you wrong, Than sure..Why not change your opinion? Though many people obviously would disagree with that.

[Meesha]

Is it a matter of proving you wrong or just opening your mind to alternative ideas???

[haggis]

I don't think it's about being right or worng.  I think people tend to create very fixed world views.  And these views only tend to altered by significant events in your life.   What I really like about art and travel is that they also allows us to appreciate life from the viewpoint of another person, if we allow them to.

I like debates because you can learn from other people, to think about life from a different perspective, to broaden your own horizons, yet I think there are too many people who just want to put their point across and 'win' arguments with people who just see life differently.

[Ryan]

In your own follow up post to your initial thoughts, you seem to have grasped the concept of thought very well, and have summed up very articulately. We don't simply take arbitrary views and apply them to our lives as and when we see fit - rather, the events that occur in our lives shape and sculpt how we see things. Thusly, we do have fixed views, but they are still extremely fluid and can be drastically changed by exposure to even one significant event. On another point you have raised, I feel many people simply take the opposing side of an argument than their true beliefs simply as a method of showing they can win debate. After all, the key element of debate is to convince, regardless of the subject matter at hand.