Do you hold any beliefs that you refuse to reconsider? Why?

That animals have rights just like we do? I don’t think anything can ever make me change my mind here. They’re living beings that deserve to be treated with respect and humanely at all times. They’re not “lesser” beings that humans and therefore shouldn’t be looked down upon as being “just animals”, and this “they’re just animals” attitude should not be a justification for them ever suffering unduly in the care of humans.
Edit: and also, humans having self appointed themselves as rules and masters over everything and the most important living beings on the planet is just arrogant and wrong.

I feel that I’m growing and changing all of the time. My views/beliefs have changed with life experience and a greater level of insight to certain things.
I still think there are certain beliefs I have that will always remain unchanged. To use an example, I believe paedophilia is absolutley horrendous. It makes me shudder. However, I would not be opposed to educating myself about this crime.
Ultimately I respect that people have the right to their own beliefs, but I think they key lies in openness and education.
Absolutes don’t necessarily bring about change, but the above most certainly do

That cats are the best animals ever. EVER!
I would rather kill every human on this planet than to change this belief.

This!! No one can persuade me otherwise. To infinity & beyond! :¬)

The only thing that I can think of that I really don’t think I would ever sway on would be that pedophilia could be acceptable. I’m pretty sure I’m in the majority with that, but if the minority were to try… I don’t think they would change my mind.

At this point in my life, I can’t see anything changing my belief that nobody should be able to take away or deny the rights of any innocent person or people.

A current example: I feel that same-sex couples should have full-marriage rights and those rights should never be and should never have been put up to a vote.

Oh yes, and i have to agree with @ragingloli, haha. I definitely won’t change my mind about that. :D

@Brian1946 that’s a good one. I agree with you. I guess I didn’t give my answer enough thought.

@TheOnlyNeffie

Thanks Neffie. :-)

However, I basically agree with your steadfast position against pedophilia.

I steadfastly believe that there is no god. This has not always been the case: I found that I was far less happy when I did believe in god but felt as though I was abandoned or ignored by him. Everything positive that has happened in my life has happened because I worked hard to make it happen. Now that I understand that, I am much happier and more confident.

There are plenty of other things too – much of what others have said before me is true for me too.

Nobody can tell me what to do. Ask me and I will do anything and everything I can to make it happen….tell me what to do and you get a pie in the face.

@Cruiser
The teachers and your parents must have loved your disobedience.

@Cruiser

Stop posting in this thread and chocolate banana cream is my favorite! ;-)

@ragingloli My parents were intelligent enough and respectful enough to not treat us like minions or slaves. They always asked! “Cruiser…can you clean up your room, Cruiser…can you stop your screaming….Cruiser…can you please stop beating on your sisters.”

@Brian1946 All out of banana cream pie….here is a nice Key Lime instead <thwack>!

No.

A good enough argument and/or dramatic life experience can at least get me to consider a different point of view.

While I’m certainly adamant about what i believe in, I never say never.

I’ve got about another 40–50 years left. Life would be awfully boring if none of my beliefs evolved one iota in that time.

Smacking children. It’s just plain abuse and ignorance.

The belief that government and society should exist for the benefit of all of its members, not just the rich and powerful.

Sure. I refuse to reconsider my beliefs which have been proven accurate.

No. If there is sufficient evidence on which coherent arguments can be made against the beliefs that I have already embraced, I should have no problems changing any one of them.

I believe that no one should work more than a 6 hour day.
The insanity of our work ethic is out of control.

The saddest thing of all in this world of ours, people working themselves to death, neglecting family & relationship, pushing themselves into an early grave.

Nope…I will never reconsider this belief.

The existence of the Christian God. I still work to understand His nature, His message, and His methods, but I cannot question His being.

Well, I’ve changed what I believe about several things over the years as I’ve grown, matured and learned new information. I would hope that I could accept a differrent philosophy. I hate to think that I am narrow minded or closed minded. I hope that I give consideration to what others have to say.

No. I have plenty of beliefs that I think are incredibly unlikely to change but I will carefully consider any evidence given against any of them and reevaluate if necessary. I think we have to be willing to reconsider any belief; no matter how dear it is to us, or how strongly held. There is nothing to fear from the truth.

No! I absolutely believe I am open to change on any belief. Oops. Seems like you can’t get there from here.

But I am open to evidence. I believe lots of things because it is necessary to do so. You can’t function day to day without doing so. I believe the ground will hold my weight, so I am able to walk on it without worrying about falling through to the core of the Earth and being burned up. I believe gravity will not fail, so I do not have to constantly strap myself down to Earth’s surface lest gravity fail and I fly into space with no air. I believe my house will stand for years to come, and so I can go in and out without constant fear it will collapse on my head. Of course, if I noticed its foundations beginning to crack, or structural damage spreading, I would immediately reassess that belief.

The same goes for my belief (or lack thereof) in alien abductions, crop circles as a supernatural phenomenon, bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, ghosts and God as creator.

All of my beliefs are open to change. (Given a persuasive argument, of course.)

@lapilofu Could I persuade you to believe that’s not true?

@ETpro Probably! I actually considered while I was writing my response that it may not be true. For instance my adherence to the necessity of a good argument to believe something—is that itself a belief? Such a conversation seems doomed to end with an unsatisfying semantic discussion of the word “belief” unfortunately.

I’m pretty adaptable when it comes to many of my beliefs, but three, in particular, have not been, and probably won’t be, subject to any sort of change as my beliefs evolve.

Those are:

1. Gun rights
2. Gay equality
3. A woman’s right to choose

I’m very unlikely to ever waver on any of these.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I’m very unlikely to change my beliefs in those areas as well. I think those are the only ones that I’m really unlikely to reconsider, most of my other beliefs I may reconsider with a really good arguement.

All my belief are Truth and therefore cannot change.
how do I know?
because I am Truth and come from Truth.

It’s not that I think there’s no chance of my beliefs ever changing, it’s that I don’t really want to discuss them. Most discussions end up being of the “Omg, why can’t you just believe as I believe” variety, so I’m not that interested. That’s not to say that comments or new studies or whatever haven’t change my beliefs, it just usually doesn’t come in the form of me actively discussing them so much as observing on the outside.

I think it is interesting to note that a large percentage of my beliefs come from my reaction to people attacking my beliefs – it tends to backfire on them.

@papayalily If you just believe like I do, then you’ll be right too!

As long as an individual exists without causing harm to other living creatures and the environment, that individual should be able to live as he or she pleases without fear of discrimination, ridicule or violence. This belief will never change. Everything else, I suppose, is open to modification.

I will never change my mind about:
1. There are no ‘abnormal’ sexualities.
2. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should (applies to war, inhumane treatment of animals, etc.)
3. All people of all genders should have equal rights.
4. Constructions of race and gender don’t serve more than they harm.

Ketchup tastes terrible.

@Ben_Dover To what extent must something be proven for you to refuse to reconsider it? Is it restricted to universally accepted facts such as heliocentrism, or would you include near-certain theories like evolution? What about hypotheses that aren’t proven to any degree of accuracy, but many people swear by, such as naturopathy?

@FireMadeFlesh I suppose I would have to take these things on a case by case basis.

For instance, evolution is so obviously the way life works that I could not be dissuaded from my belief in it. And I doubt anyone could prove otherwise. However, I also believe that God exists, and that she has created everything, and made all life to exist in a manner that evolves.

However, if someone could prove one of my beliefs to be errant, I would certainly reassess that belief.

I know that the US underwent a coup d’etat in ‘63 with the assassination of JFK and subsequent insertion of LBJ into the office vacated thereof.
I believe JFK was assassinated for various reasons by various groups including the banking establishment because he was going to put an end to the Federal Reserve System; by the arms merchants and manufacturers and the US military establishment because he was going to end our involvement in Vietnam by 1965… By the FBI because J. Edgar Hoover hated him and his brother Bobby, then US Attorney General; By Castro because of the Bay of Pigs…
And I believe the citizens of the US are basically cowards who refuse to stand up for their rights and put an end to the evil pricks now holding the reins here in the US…

I have other firmly held beliefs, but those should suffice for the time being.

My belief that all beliefs are worth considering. Also, that chicken noodle is clearly the best soup.

@FireMadeFlesh By the way you phrased your question I was probally the person you wanted to answer to this. Well without getting into specifics on any topics here I am always open to a change in belief. I am skeptical but not dogmatic or cynical on anything. There is also a large difference between empirical experience/evidence and “belief”. I have no “beliefs” that I am not willing to change. I am always open to change my beliefs when evidence is presented.

@Ben_Dover Thanks for elaborating.

@Jabe73 Thanks for your answer. You are one of the people I wanted to answer, but it was specifically aimed at everyone on the thread I linked to.