Great post. I think it's healthy for us to talk about how we were wrong about things we passionately believed. Somehow these days we behave online as if we have always been "right" about things and anybody who believes otherwise is evil and awful. It's amazing given that none of us are static and our beliefs have shifted over the years (and if they have not, that should be alarming). Life is learned by trial and error not by memorizing the "right" answers.

For me I had religious beliefs that I pawned off as truth, but they were not true and I didn't believe them because they were true, but rather because of a psychological benefit. I evolved from that in high school in an attempt to "prove" my theology by honestly tackling the nagging questions head-on. That resulted in a painful departure from that world view followed eventually by secular pride.

That set me up to be wrong about a belief in a "separation of church and state" in our First Amendment. I would like that to be there, but I have to honestly admit it's not there given the text and the history.

I was wrong in my support for Obama. Only because he did not act as he spoke on the campaign trail.

I have modified my view of abortion from pro-choice to a view that if what is being killed looks to be a small human (were we to remove it from the container and look at it) then it's killing a human just as if we are driving down the road and we see a car wreck and a human who has been severely burned that doesn't look like most humans but we can tell it is one....in that case I also recognize it's a human and I shouldn't kill it.

The biggest realization perhaps in my life was in college when I realized I was wrong about free will. There is none. Everything is cause and effect. That was a tough pill to swallow and I think is perhaps the biggest illusion people today have, this incomprehensible idea that their decisions and actions are somehow not caused by one or several causal factors but are also, at the same time, not random.

That's just a few off the top of my head. It's a great thing to be passionately wrong about something and be gifted the security to change that view and recognize how easily we can be wrong while so strongly thinking otherwise. But I think that requires that we value the truth in the first place, feel like frauds when we know we're lying about something to ourselves or to others, and want to seek the truth even when it's uncomfortable. I don't think many people today share that valuing of truth and they are quite happy to believe things they know are false if it suits them.

That Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

Abandoned? That the Republican Party is conservative. Thanks Trump!

Perhaps my most rigid conviction would be that there is a natural explanation for everything if one were to dig deep enough to find said explanation (or actually even care in the first place). What beliefs have I altered? I'm no longer religious, and evidence that I've seen so far would indicate religion/belief in gods and supernatural exists to keep people in line and under control. My beliefs on that (or now lack thereof) will not change unless I see some concrete evidence to suggest otherwise. Over the years I've adhered to and abandoned other beliefs as well, but cannot think of specific examples off hand other than the fact I no longer believe what the Democrats have to say.

My most fervent belief is that as mothers and fathers, we are ultimately responsible for educating & rearing our kids to be the best people they can be. My most significant realization was that people, in general, DO NOT seek enlightenment or knowledge, but rather prefer to live out Plato's Allagory of the Cave, generation after generation.

Bit of a random one... in a relationship a person who cheats on their partner is lacking self worth, I've observed a few times talking to people who have admitted they're cheating, one person in particular always springs to mind and they were bragging to me that they always cheat, they can't help it, and it was then it dawned on me why this person was doing it and why a previous longterm partner had cheated on me for seemingly no reason I could find in as objective introspection as i could possibly manage as a 20 year old! I came up with nothing because it was me I was looking at in a very self conscious way, lacking confidence and self worth, it's almost as if the very feelings a cheater is escaping, they're in fact channeling those feelings into their "loved one" in the future when they find out. I'd say that's a big conviction for me, that transferred emotional anguish is pure evil.

One of my biggest changes in opinion was quite recent, its important to stress, I don't own a TV, I don't watch or read or listen to the news, but a life long understanding of asylum seekers was that they come to the UK as ordinary citizens and the claims of media back in the days before I went dark was things to the effect of... Asylum seekers claiming social benefits with 29 children etc etc, and I've always thought along the lines of... surely asylum seekers could just get a job? I can't imagine people from war torn countries being the type to want to sit about and do nothing? It seems to be a disproportionate amount etc etc turns out... it's illegal for an asylum seeker to work in the UK (I have no idea about other countries) and was also one of my most recent confirmations of another conviction I have... you guess it! Dont follow the news. I've been not following the news since about 2014 / 15 and it highlights just how ridiculous it all is, of course I get snippets about big stuff... people can't help but talk about it or catch a radio on somewhere and hear a headline... one that nearly had me drop down dead laughing was hearing over a radio in a customer's house (I'm paraphrasing) "this just in, North Korea and South Korea are going to join forces for the Olympics" this was about 3 months after the headline about some sort of nuclear war about to break out - the one when trump delivered his fire and brimstone speech (or something to that effect) I remember at the time my mum was terrified we were going to have a nuclear war and I also remember consoling her with something like mum, if they sent a nuclear warhead you'd be lucky to get a 5 min warning... did you hear any horror stories about people getting a 5 min warning that a ballistic missile was on the way? Did they shoot it out of the sky? No. It landed off the coast of XYZ state (I'm thinking Alaska?) if it were slightly further it would've been a different story, but, what if it did happen like that? Would you want to experience the fear of an impending nuclear warhead strike for the last 5 mins of your life? Or would you rather one day you're hanging the washing out, you hear a bang or a rumble and the next second you're dead? And, if it was going to happen theres nothing you could do anyway! What's the point in worrying about it? Your time is better spent learning about the news within your friends and family, maybe the local town and if there isn't anything interesting, there isn't anything to worry about... read a book instead! It seems like complete insanity that we live in a world where a communist dictator can threaten nuclear war but in the same breathe invite him to pick some of his modern slaves to come and play javelin and have a go at a 'fosbury flop' there's no one in this world that could convince me to start following the news

First post / reply on here, hello!

From the age of 12 to almost 15 I was an avid and strenuous supporter of the concept of Global Cooling ...
I carried signs, participated in sit ins, went on Walk-A-Thons, collected signatures and donations, argued vociferously, I hitchhiked to Boston and sat in on college classes and “talks” ... I was “All In”
Then I learned to think critically ... or the ability kicked in ... and I came to the heartrending conclusion that it was all a scam and there were some folks making LOTS OF MONEY off the topic but nothing was actually being done.
That then morphed into being an Ecology “Freak” ... Rachel Carson, DDT, Phosphates in the water, Acid Rain ... but other fairly extreme aspects as well ...
By the time I was 18 this had morphed into; “Ecology, Think Globally Act Locally” which is where I am today several decades later.

Hmm.... was AnCap. Was convinced otherwise. Was sympathetic to neo-Confederate arguments about the Confederacy. Was convinced otherwise. Was anti-vaccine. Same deal. Used to accept the "her body, her choice" argument. Was convinced otherwise.

Was a misotheist. Was convinced otherwise.

My favorite deeply held conviction that I abandoned was my rejection of marriage and child rearing.

There are a great many things Im happy to admit I was wrong about. Maybe more yet?

At the moment, Im more happy than Ive ever been being a statist religious conservative. I feel far less pressure to virtue signal - far less anxiety about failure.

I used to judge others. As in snap judgment of people who I really knew nothing about, or relied on the preconceived notions of others to make those judgments. I would see some transient or homeless person walking down the street and just assume that I was better than that person, or just look down on people like that in general. Then about fifteen years ago I drove a cab for a while and saw a whole different side of life and people as I had come to know it through my own previously unbeknownst to me rather sheltered life. I just can't look at people the same way after that. It was not always a good experience but I did see and learn a lot in my time in the cab, and I thought I'd seen just about everything up until that. I hadn't really seen anything. I met some of the best (and worst) people I have ever known when I was in that car. People who I never would have given a second look to before that. It is an experience that I think everyone should have at some point in life. It sure changed the way I look at people and the world.

My most rigid belief is that the corporation in Washington , D.C. is masquerading as,a government . I love my country . I despise the corporation that conquered and overthrew my country , by treasonous act of war . Robert E. Lee did not surrender for me . No individual can be obligated to the terms of an agreement by a third party . My country is South Carolina . I am an American .

Christianity. Never getting rid of that one. Everything else can be explored fully, but as far as it doesn’t fit with Christianity is as far as I don’t understand it yet. Hasn’t let me down thus far.

God exists and God is good. Frees me up to be fairly academic about most other discussions.