THE TIME OF THE END QUESTIONS, Part X
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Question: What effect has preconceived human ideas had on accepting new ideas or information that may be in conflict with the preconceived ones?
Answer: The inertia resisting changes to preconceived/old thoughts can often stymie or at least interfere with new ideas, or the acceptance of new information even if the later are all proven true. This is particularly true if these new ideas contradict aspects of religious convictions on which one developed a sense of purpose in life. In its limited weakness, the human mind seeks out a static stability in order to experience some sense of peace.
Some of these religious convictions result in unconditional acceptance of false ideas from scholastic theology, which is a mixture of pagan philosophy and Jesus’ teachings, sometimes the substitution of the former for the Messiah’s. For an example of the latter take Aristotle’s derogatory views of women and the mistranslations of the Greek middle voice concerning women as found in some epistles attributed to Paul (Dermott Ch VII – IX), views not taught by Christ, who engaged and respected women, including them in his ministry and following.