Have You Ever Changed Your Mind About Something Deeply Held?

[Orbit]

Religion was a deeply held belief for me, until I began wanting to know the truth about it. I sought out academic information surrounding the issue, and that convinced me to give up that belief.

 

[Subduction Zone]

If I may...

English is not my first language and every now and then I get to read a word I have never seen before. On this particular case I took it for granted you had mistyped 'wildflower'. It got me thinking: "Wild Flower ? What is that supposed to mean? Does that mean he used to live in the wild for a while like Tarzan ? How intriguing!". Then as I kept reading your story I noticed something was off. Google translate came for rescue and I have now learned a new word. Thank you.

I have never seen the term before, but the meaning is clear to me in context. A wildfowler is one that hunts and eats wild fowl, or edible birds. Such as ducks, geese, pheasants, grouse, etc.. I am unfamiliar with the curlew, but it clearly is a bird that one used to be able to hunt.

 

[Audie]

Uh oh...another slave to etymology.
So English isn't "English", eh....it's a perfectly cromulent name.
As for not big enuf, it has little competition.....
Which Language Has The Most Words?

Freedom is slavery is it.

So derivative.

In the event I was expanding the conjugation and verb
tense shortcomings.

Any language could encrust itself with more mere words
just by sitting stupidly still like a rotten pier crusted o'er
with barnacles, to be sensely strung together like iguana eggs.

AND ifn Engrish had adequate means of expression
I'd not experentiate the compeltry to stretch the
blanket.

 

[Audie]

I have never seen the term before, but the meaning is clear to me in context. A wildfowler is one that hunts and eats wild fowl, or edible birds. Such as ducks, geese, pheasants, grouse, etc.. I am unfamiliar with the curlew, but it clearly is a bird that one used to be able to hunt.

Now we know whence the eskimo curlew

 

[Revoltingest]

Freedom is slavery is it.

So derivative.

In the event I was expanding the conjugation and verb
tense shortcomings.

Any language could encrust itself with more mere words
just by sitting stupidly still like a rotten pier crusted o'er
with barnacles, to be sensely strung together like iguana eggs.

AND ifn Engrish had adequate means of expression
I'd not experentiate the compeltry to stretch the
blanket.

That was well extirpulated.

 

[Phaedrus]

I changed my mind on god being real. It was a slow process of deconversion, because I had difficulty letting go of the comfort provided by religious faith. A great many factors led to me freeing myself from the shackles of an oppressive christian belief system, but since then I have enjoyed the ability of free thought.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I also changed my deeply held position of wearing monochrome black all the time. Never would I consider wearing any other color, but now I even have a purple shirt.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Yeah, abandonment of Gods and Goddesses.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Also believe in a God at one time

And now you don’t. If I may ask, what, specifically, changed your mind?

 

[Twilight Hue]

@Jose Fly & I disagree about the possibility of
changing the mind of global warming deniers.
He says it can't be done. He's wrong of course.

But this set me a'wondering about the titular question.
It could be about GW, religion, politics, guns, etc.
What effected the change?

I think some people, maybe most, are the type where it just has to be bad enough for them to be affected themselves to be proactively on board.

I think about my leaving Christianity . It became so obvious I simply couldn't ignore it anymore. So in essence I didn't change my mind, the circumstances and the reality of what's around me did.

 

[Nakosis]

And now you don’t. If I may ask, what, specifically, changed your mind?

Because in seeking the truth, I looked into a number of different religions. I found that whichever religion I invested belief in, I would have experience, spiritual, mystical, that seemly validated the belief. If personal experience is enough proof then every religion is true. Anything you want to believe in can become true to you.

Whatever you choose to believe, we are the master of our religious/spiritual experience. If we are the master, God can be whatever you want God to be. I decided to stop creating Gods through belief.

If there is a God, they don't need me to create them. If there isn't, the truth lies elsewhere.

 

[Notanumber]

I was a wildfowler.
If I could have done so I would have lived out on the creeks and saltmarshes for ever. I lived for it. I loved it. I would never ever want to give up.

And then during one dawn I shot a curlew, it was legal to shoot curlew back then, and they tasted quite like steak. It fell in to the creek just out of my reach, and I have left my fowling punt a long way further up the creek.

It was cold. Freezing. The curlew lay in the water, injured, with its wings outstretched. It began to shiver, and this caused circles of ripples to radiate away from its freezing body. I shot it again to end its torment and the close range shot disintegrated it to pieces, inedible.

It was like a mind-punch that happened to me, as I realised I was a total moron to have taken that shot, and to have wasted the life of such a beautiful creature.

I walked back to my punt, rowed home, and never went out again. I sold my punt to a Maldon wildfowler who later became famous. . I hung my gun over the fireplace and years later I sold it to an antiques dealer who came around doorknocking in the hope of bargains.

That was the biggest change I ever made in my life, I think.
I don't knock wildfowlers and never have, but I'm sure that if they ever did something as stupid as that that it might change them too.

I can understand what you felt.

A friend was a wildfowler and would also shoot on farmland. He usually had a pheasant or two hung in the garage. I accepted what he did because he ate what he shot.

I have been a vegetarian all my life and more recently became vegan so I could not do the same.

Being brought up on a farm, I acquired a .22 air rifle in my early teens and remember shooting a sparrow for no reason. I felt deep remorse as soon as I carried out the act and vowed never to kill again. This is why I could never have taken over the dairy farm and chose a different career.

 

[Notanumber]

If someone has accepted an ideology such as manmade climate change as a new religion and people like Greta as the new messiah, it would be very difficult for them to change their mind.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I'm so shallow I don't have any deeply held views (that I can think of), but not as shallow as some, as in:

(Which I saw live of course in 1966)

And perhaps deeply held views are a bit problematic in many ways - if they tend to cause divisions. Could the issue of having such views be the very thing that prevents us all from cooperating and living more harmoniously, even if this is a bit utopian?

I can't really say that any of my views have changed that much over seven decades. I have been suspicious of religions from an early age and this hasn't changed. I leave open the possibility of there being a creative force in the universe - the sheer nature of existence (where does it exist?) is enough to leave doubts in my mind. I tend towards the Left in politics because even though hierarchies may be the norm (as per the Jordan Peterson argument), I would like to think there is a fairer way for all to live, but I'm not that hopeful that this will ever happen.

Most other things I leave a little open but, being quite attached to rationality, such that if scientific opinion generally seems to disprove something or has no evidence for its truth, then I will generally do so myself. I can't think of anything more rational than expecting those with better knowledge and/or abilities to have a better understanding of any particular issue than myself, such that I will likely accept their views over mine or those with lesser knowledge/abilities than myself - that is, where I just do not have the knowledge/abilities myself. Of course it is not that simple since even the so-called experts don't always agree. Consensus tend to be a reasonable guide though in most cases.

There are too many cracks in the fabric of truth to fall down if one starts to believe things that don't seem to make sense - so best to leave an open mind on these or wait for further evidence. And I'm not a great believer in personal evidence either unless it informs one about human behaviour perhaps - where it might do so - but one must always balance this against the personal experiences of others too.

So overall I'm not a fan of deeply held views - like the sketch above - not as deep as some, but not as shallow as some others. (And I still don't know my place)

The only deeply held view I can think of which might have some value is that the quality of human life, of all other life, and the health of our planet, are the most important objectives to aim for.

 

[oldbadger]

I can understand what you felt.

A friend was a wildfowler and would also shoot on farmland. He usually had a pheasant or two hung in the garage. I accepted what he did because he ate what he shot.

I have been a vegetarian all my life and more recently became vegan so I could not do the same.

Being brought up on a farm, I acquired a .22 air rifle in my early teens and remember shooting a sparrow for no reason. I felt deep remorse as soon as I carried out the act and vowed never to kill again. This is why I could never have taken over the dairy farm and chose a different career.

Thanks for that.
It seems as if we can both empathise with each other's feelings about those incidents.

I live by the sea, and the curlews feed out on the flats at low water, but when the tide rises they leave the flats and fly over our home to the meadow behind us.

Every time a flight of curlews fly over our place I remember. Every time.

We keep wildfowl in the garden now, and we often bring injured duck and waders off the flats to our garden where they either recover, die in peace or live on here for the remainder of their lives.

 

[Audie]

That was well extirpulated.

You've no more chance when I around
than your car would have if I fixed it.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Uh oh...another slave to etymology.
So English isn't "English", eh....it's a perfectly cromulent name.
As for not big enuf, it has little competition.....
Which Language Has The Most Words?

From your link...
“Modern English evolved from the Germanic language family which relates also to ..... German, among other languages.”
Lol.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Because in seeking the truth, I looked into a number of different religions. I found that whichever religion I invested belief in, I would have experience, spiritual, mystical, that seemly validated the belief. If personal experience is enough proof then every religion is true. Anything you want to believe in can become true to you.

Whatever you choose to believe, we are the master of our religious/spiritual experience. If we are the master, God can be whatever you want God to be. I decided to stop creating Gods through belief.

If there is a God, they don't need me to create them. If there isn't, the truth lies elsewhere.

You had “spiritual, mystical” experiences?
How, exactly?

Or do you mean in an emotional sense? Like in getting carried away in the enthusiasm?

Because I never did understand that. That’s one reason I left Pentecostalism.

 

[Revoltingest]

From your link...
“Modern English evolved from the Germanic language family which relates also to ..... German, among other languages.”
Lol.

That's part of why English is so big....es ist sehr vollengkrankenden
mit gewordinkludenish gemutlichkeit & fahrverglugenchen.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

That's part of why English is so big....es ist sehr vollengkrankenden
mit gewordinkludenish gemutlichkeit & fahrverglugenchen.

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