How do you view people who disagree with you? Do you see them as simply misinformed, or naive, or possibly stupid?

It may come easy to vilify those we disagree with, but often they have a reason for holding to their positions. And over the course of our life, it’s inevitable we’ll change our mind on at least a few things. Perhaps these positions or opinions will be trivial, or they may be of huge significance. Regardless, as we encounter more information, and go through more life experiences, we’re bound to change our mind about something at some point. That’s normal.

But if we’ve spent our life vilifying those on the other side of our positions, it may make it that much harder to actually look at the evidence. And if we ever do end up changing our mind down the road, the way we earlier treated those we disagreed with may lead to unnecessary regret.

Having something to believe in, and stand up for, and defend is important. But so is the way we go about it.