Can information that contradicts everything you think ever be meaningful to you or do you call it LIES and fuggeddaboutit? Is that wise?

Thank you for your reply LC. Even though what you find upends everything you ever thought was true? Good for you!  :)

Yes, if what I believed was wrong and it was proven to me, it would be ludicrous for me to hold onto beliefs that are not true. That would be doing a great injustice to myself.  

Thank you for your reply LC! That is a very good thing to be able to do! :)

So you say. Thank you for your reply and Happy Wedesday to thee m2c.

Thank you for your reply B and Happy Wednesday to thee. So if that info you find completely contradicts what you have believed to be true your entire life would you accept it or suspect it? It's a very big deal for those who believe the world is flat to find it isn't. Or to believe the earth is the center of the universe and find how laughable a belief that is. I have heard folks on TV say the world is only a few thousands years old, not billions. Because the bible tells them so.  I dunno. Research is fine but if it shocks you to your very core I think it would be difficult to accept it. I think it would be much easier to try to undermine it, find flaws with it, sabotage it. Just like some folks are trying so diligently to do with Mueller and the FBI. Repeatedly. Everywhere. Everyone who supports the donjohn does it. Apologies for the digression. I think your intellect is a cut above the rest but even so beliefs that are ingrained within us are very hard to change no matter how much intelligence one brings to it. :)

I suppose it depends upon the individual, and I can only speak for myself. I have indeed changed my beliefs when I find evidence that they are wrong. Occasionally, those have been lifelong beliefs that were core to my worldview. That is/can be shocking. It requires a paradigm shift that many are unwilling to accept.

The first time it happened to me, I stumbled across something that challenged my thoughts about something on my own. I delved into researching it with the genuine belief I would emerge with my original belief intact. I did not.

The second time, I was debating someone online and actually set out to prove them wrong. I could not do so. I ended up finding irrefutable proof (they had provided skimpy, questionable "proofs") that what they had said was true. That led me to question other (related) things.

I tend to get both lost in researching and sidetracked from my original focus, often branching off into other, albeit related, issues. I sometimes end up amassing a great deal of information that I only fully examine at a later point in time. Once I do, I then have to verify or debunk what I have found. Sometimes what I think are the craziest things, that could easily be debunked, turn out to be true. Other times, what seems to be a no-brainer ('Duh, of course that is true!') turns out to be false. I have often found the proofs, one way or another, difficult to track down...even with the internet. One item took me more than two years.

Those were major opinions/beliefs that failed to withstand the challenges. That seriously shifted my paradigm. Because of that, I am willing to try to look at things from another's perspective and to check links I know are biased in opposition to my beliefs/opinions. Doing so rarely results in any great change in my thinking, but I do learn from it. And while my opinion may stand, sometimes completely intact and other times subtly changed, I generally have a better understanding of where someone is coming from and why they believe as they do.

How deeply I delve and how much time I spend is dependent upon both the import of the subject to me and my curiosity.  

((hugs)) Do you know WHY I hugged you? Because this reply is a PERFECT example of what a thoughtful, truthful, honest and honorable person would do. I, like you, have changed a belief here and there now and then and sometimes it is an extremely unsettling thing to do and takes awhile to get used to as well. I take stock periodically testing myself to see if I really believe whatever it is or am I having doubts? I go within for a tuneup and repair if need be now and then because anything that isn't maintained inevitably falls into disrepair. I don't care how well made it is. So I very much appreciate the time you invested in comprehensively detailing your method. It's kinda like mine but I like yours better. This  rapprochement is working out rather well I think. Yes. I think so! :)