Please, tell me I'm wrong

I really appreciate your comments. And as much as I like to have people agree with me, I actually prefer comments when my readers disagree.

Why? Well, I value the truth. I mean, I really value the truth. I want my beliefs to reflect reality. I don't care so much about comfort. If my feelings get hurt, that's the price I'm willing to pay. If I'm wrong, I want to know about it. I'm serious.

If no one ever disagrees with me, my opinions won't get challenged. And when it comes to beliefs, challenge is a good thing. If my opinions, if my beliefs, if my facts can't withstand a challenge, what good are they?

I find blogs, sometimes, where comments are censored. Anyone who disagrees with the blogger is likely to see his comments disappear. That's the sign of a guy who doesn't care about the truth. That kind of blogger just wants to massage his ego. (OK, admittedly, all of us kind of want to massage our egos, I suppose, or we wouldn't be blogging in the first place.)

I see it on YouTube videos, too, where comments or ratings - or both - are disabled. You might think that's understandable on YouTube, because there are a lot of crazy people there. But I don't think so. That problem tends to be self-corrective, as the really crazy comments accumulate negative votes, until YouTube eventually identifies them as spam. (Note that I will remove spam here, although Blogger almost always does that automatically.)

Here, at least, I want to know if you disagree with me, even in part. In fact, the best thing you could do for me is convince me that I'm wrong. As I say, if I'm wrong, I want to know about it. I value the truth too much to want to believe falsehoods. And I know I'm not infallible. I've been wrong before, and I'll be wrong again.

Sometimes, commenters do convince me that I was wrong about something. It's doesn't happen very often, and I won't claim that it's easy, but it does happen. And I'm profoundly grateful every time it does.

If you're familiar with my blog at all, you'll probably know that I'm a real devil's advocate. Even if I'm not sure what I think, I might challenge your position. Well, how else to determine the truth? As I say, the truth can withstand a little challenge, don't you think? It's only falsehood that needs to be sheltered from such things.

And if I disagree with your comment in any way, I'll challenge that part of it. I might agree with you about almost everything, but it's the part where we disagree - or even where we might disagree - that will always catch my attention. Face it, that's just me. It doesn't mean that I think you're stupid. If you're stupid, what's the point of arguing with you?

And I expect you to do the same in return. If you agree with most, but not all, of a post, then point out where you disagree. Let's have a vigorous discussion about it. Because, if I'm wrong, I want to know about it. Don't you?

Most of the time, we'll probably end up agreeing to disagree. So what? I don't have to agree with everyone about everything. And the truth is not always easy to discern (and not always black and white, either). We probably wouldn't ever disagree, if every question was easy to answer.

But never doubt that I'm opinionated. I have strong opinions and I'm always willing to defend them. I've thought about these things, and I generally think that I have good reasons for my beliefs. I try to be evidence-based. You're unlikely to convince me I'm wrong just on your say-so.

I try to use logic, too, and reason. But those need to be grounded in evidence. Faith, on the other hand, is just believing what you want to believe. Faith-based thinking is the reverse of truth-seeking.

But hey, if you think I'm wrong about that, tell me so. Convince me otherwise. That's my point. If you disagree, tell me why.

Thanks for commenting!