People have strong opinions because they find their argument water tight against an inadequate opponent who cannot withstand your scrutiny. By product of all this is -This results in most people finding most people complete 'idiots'. Conservatives Vs Liberals, Atheist Vs Religious, Religion Vs Religion, Political views, Societal rules discussions, Parenting, Sports... whatever it is. We all find lot of people's completely foolish point of view to our superior one.
When you find an opinion not even worth your respect and consideration, think again! Maybe you are asking a PhD level question at Elementary School level. This means you just reached a level of discussion where you need to seek the 'next level' of answer on the subject which you find 'ridiculous' or 'stupid'.
Most of the strong opinions are very strong because the opponent has been weak, that does not mean the idea of the opponent is weak. It's just that the opponent is not into understanding the entire subject he has decided to believe in! But he does believe it with a passion because he trusts the 'source' he got the 'opinion' from. That source most times than not, has a higher understanding and deeper philosophy on the subject.
For example - We say sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Perfectly good and logical point of view for most people in the world. Now one day you suddenly get mad that this a completely stupid view because nor does sun rise and neither it sets. People are such idiots!. The fact is - you just asked a question beyond the level of a regular kindergarten kid. Go ask the question to someone who has read about this subject more and he will tell you - why we say that Sun rises in the east - because of convenience and world functions better that way, and what the facts are and how it makes sense to say sun rises in east. Now even if you don't like the argument, you still can't call the people stupid to follow this ritual of saying sun rises in the east! You asked a higher level question to someone who could answer you at that level. Similarly - if you find someone's religion dumb, or someone's gun control position untenable, or someone's idea completely 'stupid' - all you need is find the higher level answer to human behavior and beliefs.
Let's take another examples - An Atheist has easy logic to display how idiot a Theist is, this is because 'Theist' is in elementary class of theism, he does not have time, energy or interest to delve deep into answering all the questions thrown at him. Instead he has decided to leave it to a few 'PhD' levels to decide for him. Every human has to do it - we have 99% issues we believe in - but we are in elementary school on those subjects. We cannot be PhD in all aspects.
Many of us believe anything that starts with - a study has found...., scientist say a coffee a day will keep cancer away... etc... we can't go read each study in details and find exactly what it really means. We may look dumb to others, who may ask a higher level question which we may not be interested in answering. We have left frequency of drinking coffee to higher authority - a scientist (whoever that is and however twisted his logic was to make those eye catching head lines).
Most ideas are based on a philosophy which has some merit, how distorted the real idea became is your opinion, but the basis of all long standing ideas in the world is pretty robust. So next time when you think you can't believe how 'stupid' people are - Just think may be you are asking a PhD level question to Elementary level masses. Go seek the answer that makes you satisfied about why people look so stupid, not for them, but for your own peace of mind.
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