On Being Wrong

I respect people who can admit when they are wrong.
None of us are omniscient.
There are an infinite number of things we do not know, and every one of us is going to be wrong about things.
I have been wrong about so many things in my life.
I have been extremely wrong about many things.
I have changed my mind when I learned something new, or when someone respectfully explained an idea that I did not understand or was not exposed to before.
I think we need more people to be humble enough to admit when we are wrong about something.
We also need to extend grace to others, and not rub their wrongness in their face.
Some people are going to double down on something when confronted.
But many people are willing to examine their ideas and beliefs and change their views, if conversed with respectfully and listened to as well.
I know that a lot of people are very extreme in their views.
I was one of those people.
I personally was very left wing on a lot of issues.
I was never a Socialist or Communist, but I was of the persuasion that the government, the state, was the solution to pretty much every social and economic problem.
It wasn’t people calling me names, or insulting me, which got me to change my mind.
It was reading a book which exposed me to more conservative and libertarian principles and ideas in a respectful way.
No one ever got me to change my mind by insulting or talking down to me.
I was willing to listen to reason, and change my mind, but I had not been exposed to any good reasoning for another perspective.
So I just want to reiterate, that I respect people who are humble enough to admit when they are wrong.
I respect people who can consider differing opinions, and listen to others who disagree with them.
I respect people who can respectfully reason and dialogue with other people of different worldviews.
We need more of that, and less of ad hominems and name calling.
Maybe some people are far gone, but a lot more people are willing to listen and dialogue and change their minds, and we need to keep those people in mind.
I have changed my mind radically over the years.
And it was because of respectful people, not because of the name calling and the insults and the hostility. Those kinds of approaches never got me to change my mind, or look at a new perspective, and in fact, they only made me more firm in my wrong opinions and ideas.
So I just want to ask for prayers for more respectful dialogue and listening and for giving each other the grace to allow others to admit they are wrong, and not rub it their being wrong in their faces.
God bless.