samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007
Status: offline
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I've learned a few things over the years-
1) Transitioned from atheist to agnostic. I can't see how anyone can definitively say that the big bang occurred without some type of agency, but Nietzche may be right -God is dead.
2) Disavowal of collective guilt. When I was younger, I was pretty aggravated with the people living in Germany when I learned about the Holocaust and I thought that being Jewish entitled me to some type of consideration (a rather amorphous and ill considered thought) And when I was younger, the idea of visiting Berlin would give me the heebie jeebies. After reading Len Deighton, I got some appreciation of the town, and when I visited it 2 years ago, I had a ball. Now I recognize that there's a terrific amount of propaganda that has distorted the role of the average German citizen under the Nazis, and while intellectually, I might have made the argument that an individual citizen of Germany bore no responsibility for the Holocaust, that idea really hit home when I looked through some of the Gestapo files. It dawns on me that a chunk of the US propaganda is to show how different we are from the Germans, but the reality is that there are some very uncomfortable similarities.
3) More tolerance for opposing political and other viewpoints. I used to have a strong aversion to anyone that described themselves as a "good Christian" figuring that they were probably hypocritical and self serving. (I had a grandmother who was like that- not a nice person.) Then I got "adopted" by a family in Florida who are strongly religious, vote the other party, and are some of the warmest and most tolerant people I know. If Jesus Christ would show up on Earth again, and he sought anyone that embodied his teachings, he could rest easy visiting these guys.
4) Strong agreement with Uncle Nasty concerning our legal system and its deficiencies. Before I'd met any judges, my impression of them was largely positive (I think formed from TV and movies.) In reality- the legal system is a nightmare, and the judges bear as much of the blame as any of the lawyers. I've seen a judge assist a guy who bilked investors out of tens of millions, blew his stack at me, and his buddy wound up serving no time and setting up the scam again in India. I've had judges tell me when I fought a speeding ticket- that my conviction wasn't based on science. (And I have to go back to the court in a few days for jury duty. I did warn the judge that he was tainting me as a potential juror.)
5) Strong agreement with Merc (he may be ROFL if he reads this one) on the need for lower taxes for businesses. Starting your own business will quickly convince anyone that you can't put enough money away for a rainy day (like now!) given our current tax system- and it's anything but progressive.
6) I'm learning on this board, that just because you agree with someone on one point, that may not carry over to the next. Discussing things with folks that have a different viewpoint and express it clearly is often more of a learning experience than finding someone you agree with- but it's nice to have some moral support on occasion.
Sam
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RE: Have you changed your position on anything? - 
Profile
) I used to be anti-death penalty. Like HORRIBLY. There was absolutely nothing you could do to persuade me that the decision to kill someone else could be made without their decision. After talking on some of my favorite message boards about it when I was a freshman in college, I changed my mind. To me it's MORE inhumane (also known as cruel and unusual) to imprison someone for their entire lives than it is to kill them (now). Personally my preference has become focused on removing life-in-prison as a possibility. If someone's done something horrible enough to be removed, entirely, from society for the rest of their lives then that deserves the death penalty. 
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