boatin

Well, it won't be the last time I'm unintentionally funny, I guess. As always, it makes more sense in my head than on paper... let me try again. There's really two points that combine to form my conclusion:

#1: The point of involving myself on a discussion board is to discuss. To try to learn something. To read people's posts that make me nuts and try to understand what they are saying. To read people who are more articulate than I am, and try to learn how to do better.

#2: People hold wrong opinions all the time. Little things and big things. They always have. Opinions that are flatly wrong, and disproved over time. Scientific opinions like the earth being flat, or moral opinions like slavery. They are wrong wrong wrong, and I doubt anyone would hold those opinions any more. Given that people throughout history have been wrong about near everything, it seems likely that that is still true.

My conclusion: I don't want to be wrong. I don't want to hold onto thoughts/opinions because that's what I've always believed. I want to use my time to listen, learn and form new conclusions. One way to do that is to challenge my own assumptions, to actively chase down the things I prefer to believe and subject them to a greater scrutiny BECAUSE I prefer to believe them.

It turns out that message boards are a great way to do that for me. My question to anyone else is: why are you here? If you're not going to take the time to read something that challenges your own position, what's the point? And, perhaps more relevently, why should anyone listen to your opinions?

You don't have to agree with Host, Matthew330. You don't have to be 'enlightened'. But we sure as sh** should be able to respond to the merits of someone's post.