Читать книгу Uncomfortable Ideas - Bo Bennett PhD - Страница 13

Depending on how passionate one might be about certain issues, one can dislike or even hate people who hold opposite views on those issues. If we want to understand why someone holds the idea they do, we need to entertain the idea. What we often realize is that biological differences, different life experiences, or different values account for these different ideas. In the case of biological difference, the fairly new area of neuroscience shows us that biological differences in the brain affect how we process and understand information including political and religious beliefs. Different life experiences may include the indoctrination we received as a child, education or lack thereof, or some strong emotional experience that had a great impact on how we see the world. Even though we all may claim that we value the same things, how we define those things and to what degree we value each thing varies greatly. For example, two people both might value justice and compassion, but one might support the death penalty because to them, death is a just punishment for murder and justice is more important to them than compassion. Or perhaps, one might claim that they value compassion more, but it is through their sense of compassion for the loved ones of the victim that they support the death penalty. Once we understand why people hold the ideas they do, we are far less likely to hate them for it.

Uncomfortable Idea: Opposite views can often be reduced to prioritizing different values, where there is no wrong or right.