“A fool is wise in his eyes”, King Soloman
Religious fundamentalists are convinced they are wise and on the right path and everyone else is wrong. This is true of every religion. Logically it is impossible for religious fundamentalists of every religion to be wise. At most, only one can be wise.
When I was a teenager, I thought I was a wise decision maker. In 20’s, I realized that I was a poor decision-maker. Good thing I smartened up. In my 30’s, I realized that I am made many poor decisions in my 20’s. Good thing I smartened up. All future decades will look the same. No one considers himself to be dumb or stupid. How could anyone make any decision if he considered himself dumb and stupid? At every stage of our life, we make decisions on what we know and our ability to process the information.
This is an important fact to keep in mind. Everyone considers himself wise. Everyone thinks he is doing the right thing most of the time. To get anyone to change his, you need to appeal to their wisdom. The moment someone senses that you think he is stupid and needs to be educated, his ego will kick in and then anything you say will hit a brick wall. You will fail to change the person’s opinion.
Let’s look at the truckers rally across Canada in January 2022. The protesters were claiming that their freedom is under threat from pandemic restrictions. Others were saying that they are still suffering from pandemic restrictions because these people are refusing to get vaccinated. Both sides are convinced that their beliefs are based on facts and logical thinking. The difference is the facts that they cite. Those who have confidence in scientific studies and data, believe in getting vaccinated. Those who deeply distrust big pharma and big government will find facts that support their beliefs.
I am not going to be diplomatic here. Scientific facts are real facts. Scientific method scrutinizes facts again and again. Only the facts that stand the test of time, experiments, and studies are retained in the scientific body of knowledge. If you seek the truth, start by finding hard facts, supported by science. Understand the scientific method. Then form opinions based on the facts. However, if you start by forming an opinion and then seek facts to support your opinion, you will find bits and pieces you can stitch together to support your claims, regardless of how strong the science is against it. Flat earth movement is an example. We have pictures of a round earth. We satellites and the international space station going around the planet. The facts are indisputable, yet some people still passionately believe in a flat earth. This is because they are trying to fit facts into their beliefs rather than forming an opinion from the facts.
Everyone thinks they are wise but the truly wise people form and change their opinions based on verified facts. No one is 100% right all the time. A truly wise person understands this and continues to seek knowledge. He does not waste his time arguing with seek validation, instead of knowledge.