Reply #35: Its tricky

[Az]

The nature of people is to help others in trouble. Watch the videos of 9/11. After the initial dust and debrie hit people were seen running back in to help those caught in the disaster. Its our nature.

If a person believes that hitting their head repeatedly with a board is the way to find salvation there are going to be those that are concerned for them. They are clearly harming themself. It is natural to want to help them.

Now while belief in less harmfull things may seem less threatening there is still a natural tendency to want to help those who are mislead. This is where the tricky part comes it. We believe the things we do because we believe they are true. We do not choose to believe a thing. We may have made choices on our paths that lead to our belief's. But where and who we are now is not a choice. Our beliefs are who we are.

The thing of it is our minds are designed to learn by exchanging ideas with each other. Its how we grow and develop. Maturity is just us taking all the lessons and ideas we have accumulated and formulating our own vision of the world around us. We believe it to be a relatively accurate image of the world. Otherwise we would not formulate it.

When we meet new people we exchange ideas. When we find someone with a radically different idea we compare it to our own and if it does not fit it is rejected. If the person has some value to us (family, friend, similar social group, etc) we may become concerned about the differentiation of the idea. We will naturally try to convey our position as it is the one we are most familiar with and naturally believe to be the correct one.

Yes it is everyone's right to believe what they will. But we are social creatures. We interact. We seek to help those that matter to us. And the perception of a malformed world view triggers out natural instincts to advise and correct.