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**9mm_fan** · 04-28-2008, 05:49 PM

i'm still finding it very difficult to relate to more scientific-minded people who are confused and/or threatened by the direction i'm going in. many of them would still very much like for me to get out of that field. the question is, is there any way to simply get along, and still maintain your truth and your path in life, without having to throw away otherwise good relationships because of an inability to agree to disagree?

this can indeed be a challenge, because the bottom line is that most people believe that if you don't think like they do, then you're just plain wrong and uneducated, and some people who think like this also believe it's their honor/duty to "save" you from the "errors" of your beliefs. most of these people are entirely convinced that they are "right" and this is extremely important to them. as acim says, most people would rather be right than happy, given a choice of one or the other.

people who notice that your belief system is different from theirs, in general, feel threatened by that, and sadly, most of them aren't even interested in your ideas. i don't have any easy answers here, but if there's some way that you could respectfully agree to disagree, i think you'd be more than halfway there.

for instance, when it comes to dealing with people like fundamental [no fun; all mental

] christians, one of my teachers once gave me a good tip, that works for many of them. his advice was to acknowledge what they were saying, (instead of blowing them off) and telling them that you understand that their religion requires them to try to "convert the nonbelievers". then explain to them that they have now fulfilled the requirements of their religion by attempting to convert you, and they can now rest easy. the few times i used this method, it worked surprisingly well. it seems that they even had a new-found respect for me, because they now see that i understand their position and kinda let them off the hook.
hope this helps.

04-28-2008, 05:49 PM	#9
9mm_fan Join Date May 2007 Age 53 Posts 5,191 Senior Member	i'm still finding it very difficult to relate to more scientific-minded people who are confused and/or threatened by the direction i'm going in. many of them would still very much like for me to get out of that field. the question is, is there any way to simply get along, and still maintain your truth and your path in life, without having to throw away otherwise good relationships because of an inability to agree to disagree? this can indeed be a challenge, because the bottom line is that most people believe that if you don't think like they do, then you're just plain wrong and uneducated, and some people who think like this also believe it's their honor/duty to "save" you from the "errors" of your beliefs. most of these people are entirely convinced that they are "right" and this is extremely important to them. as acim says, most people would rather be right than happy, given a choice of one or the other. people who notice that your belief system is different from theirs, in general, feel threatened by that, and sadly, most of them aren't even interested in your ideas. i don't have any easy answers here, but if there's some way that you could respectfully agree to disagree, i think you'd be more than halfway there. for instance, when it comes to dealing with people like fundamental [no fun; all mental ] christians, one of my teachers once gave me a good tip, that works for many of them. his advice was to acknowledge what they were saying, (instead of blowing them off) and telling them that you understand that their religion requires them to try to "convert the nonbelievers". then explain to them that they have now fulfilled the requirements of their religion by attempting to convert you, and they can now rest easy. the few times i used this method, it worked surprisingly well. it seems that they even had a new-found respect for me, because they now see that i understand their position and kinda let them off the hook. hope this helps.
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