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Old 08-22-2008, 12:11 PM   #31 (permalink)
Cernunnos
Insane
 
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Location: Orlando, Florida
Igorance is a fact of life. The amount of human knowledge in the world is accelerating to such a degree that it is impossible to obtain anything but a miniscule fraction of it, let alone retain what you have learned. Take a deep breath and realize that it is something which can't be helped.

Those who choose to believe in pseudoscience, in my opinion, are misguided. The benefits attributed to these various forms of alternate medicine are sometimes with merit, but the lack of hard fact supporting them is disconcerting when the proportion of individuals relying solely on these cures is increasing at such a rapid rate.

I don't harbor any anger towards ignorance or even those who intentionally cling to their beliefs while refusing to accept evidence which refutes the effectiveness of their 'cure'. People assign meanings and see correlations, it can't be prevented. Attempting to convince an individual that his or her belief is false will often merely lead to a stronger conviction. Allow them to live as they wish, and so long as they do not force their ideas on you after you've expressed disinterest in the subject, it is rather pointless to counter their arguments.

If confronted with an individual who holds strong beliefs and is clearly striving to convince me as to its positive effects, I will usually listen politely and state that I'll give it some thought, then intentionally switch to a separate topic with a question that demands an answer from them. Once the topic is planted firmly on a lighter note, I may end the conversation altogether, explaining that I must excuse myself for a believable reason.

It's less stressful to listen to a person talk for a minute than to argue for ten. Displaying hostility or disdain will only inflame them and potentially cause a bridge to burn. Ignorant people are everywhere, and you're always going to have to deal with them. Get used to it and pick your battles wisely.
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