What Won’t You Change?

A while back I watched some of the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, a firmly entrenched creationist. The debate was mostly hilarious and mind-boggling, but one question really stood out to me. Someone asked each of them, what, if anything, could change their mind. Bill Nye said anything– any shred of evidence that “divine” creation may have occurred. Ken said nothing. He admitted that there was no possible way he would ever change his mind.

Whether you believe the insanity of creation or not, it should alarm you that he had a belief he was not willing to change under any circumstances. It’s one thing to have a lot of confidence and admit that the bar of proof would have to be very high, but it’s another to openly admit that you would choose to ignore reason.

That made me think a lot about how we approach life outside religion. There are some things that we are very willing to change our minds on, some that we’d be reluctant to, and in some cases, some that we would almost never change our minds on.

For example, I think that Chipotle makes a great burrito bowl. I’m crazy about Chipotle. But if you told me that the place next door is even better, I’d be totally open to trying it and quite possibly conceding that it’s better.

On the other hand, you’d have a very difficult time convincing me that smoking marijuana is a good thing. I’m aware of arguments in its favor (and am very glad it’s being legalized), but it would take an overwhelming amount of evidence to get me to actually try it.

These are cases where I think we need to admit that our rationality is being clouded. I have a strong aversion to drugs, even though I know that pot’s probably not that bad. Very smart people tell me about ways they’ve used it positively, and I just sort of tune it out. It’s not that I believe them, it’s that I don’t want to believe them.

People with strong dietary preferences often fall into this category as well. As a former vegan and someone who really enjoys vegan food, I think a logical and rational person can very easily conclude that it’s at least as healthy to eat animal products as it is to not. And, ethically, if your sandwich has meat on it by accident, you’re really not contributing to animal cruelty if you eat it. And yet…

I don’t think it’s the end of the world to have these sorts of barriers, but I think they’re worth looking at. What usually creates them is fear and attachment to identity. I take an inappropriate amount of pride in never having tried any drug, and that identity is important to me. If a vegan started eating meat, a lot of his friends, especially vegan ones, might criticize him. That happened to me when I switched to eating meat.

Fear and attachment to identity are bad reasons to do things. A useful exercise to try is to think of what the upside would be if you were wrong and you changed your mind. In the case of me not wanting to do drugs, it seems slight. But if I had cancer or something that pot purportedly helps a lot with, that upside might be very big and I’d be well served to ask myself some tough questions.

Think about what you’re not willing to change, and do the hard work of looking past knee-jerk reactions to see whether it’s something you should consider. Maybe you should change, maybe you shouldn’t; either way, the option should probably be on the table.

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Picture is a cool Dali Sculpture in Macau, I think in the MGM there.

I’m in Milan now, headed to Vienna, Prague, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Lots of stops in three weeks!


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