What would it take to change your mind ?

My wife .....she changes it for me

Cliff

 

People believe in various religions for a lot of different reasons.

Certainly there was a time where 'God' was used to explain things that were outside of understanding at the time. It can be a way of explaining things without calling it magic. Even today there's still plenty of questions that are unanswered by science.

Some people will use religion as a set of rules to live by. A structure around a code or a way of life which they identify with.

Many people use their faith as an anchor or a rock. It grounds them and gives them something to hold onto when faced with adversity.

And then of course, there's those who use it as a way of controlling others to what are ultimately selfish ends, or as an excuse for their actions.

 

Correct - one of my exs-bosses years ago used to say; "We are all created equal; but some of us are more equal than others"

 

I wasn't referring to property - just the quality of humans in general that frequent those places..

 

Watched TED video on how mind find patterns. That's one reason

Coming from science background, I'm a sceptic, but at the same time open to possibilities. You can't discover new things with closed mind. To change my opinion:

• Reliable evidence.
• Repeatable experiments
• And if you can couple with with experience, that'd be the bomb.

 

Derivation from George Orwell animal farm . "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm

Cliff

 

Jesus to dinosaurs: "shoo shoo, your ruining my story"

 

Exactly.

Or if new information comes to light.

 

A christian told me that God created the dinosaur bones and fossils. They carbon dated as millions of years old because God made them that way. I guess you can rationalise anything if you have enough faith. Mind you, I studied science at uni and I dropped out when I found out it was faith based. I liked the evidence units and did fine in them. But when it came to faith I didn't have enough

 

This is definitely not correct, there is a lot of evidence that humans are getting less intelligent in recent generations. "Survival of the fittest" doesn't apply anymore. Actually the decreases in intelligence are happening frighteningly fast, diet is considered a factor but the reasons aren't clear.

Regarding changing opinions, experience and time play a big part. I used to be quite right wing when I was younger, always voted National. Over the years observations that neither strong capitalism or socialism is good for a society, now I'm more politically central.

 

It is interesting how easy it is to make people change their perceptions. watch this video which is old but it has been repeated in recent years with similar results. I can't find a video for the 2005 one but they looked at which areas of the brain were used (eg frontal, decision making and perception). People actually believed they had made the right decision even though it was wrong.
and people ask how Hitler managed to get people to persecute the Jews!

 

Rather than having your mind changed by sound evidence from a 3rd party, I was getting more deciding for yourself what would convince you to change your mind.

For example, I am convinced that property is v. likely to continue to rise in the long term because -

• the govt policy is for a rising popln for the next 35 yrs,
• the vast majority of people have a strong desire to live in one of 5 very small (100km x 100km) areas of Australia,
• we can afford to pay for it

... and I would seriously reconsider my position if either -

• the popln stabilised (eg like Germany) or declined (like Japan)
• there was a groundswell movement away from the cities, so we're a lot more evenly spread around the country (like US & Ireland)

Or alternatively, next time a perma bull or bear states a strong opinion, ask them What would it take to change your mind ? And if they say Nothing, then refer them to post #1 .

 

I see what you are getting at now. I'm not expecting housing to continue to rise like it has in the past. I think we are moving into a different cycle in the property market. My strategy is to make money even if prices only increase at a similar rate to inflation (or slightly above). What will change my mind is when I am proven wrong (again), and prices increase. That's ok, I'm alway wrong about the market. I keep making money when I don't expect to.

 

I found my year 7 report card last weekend - straight A's except for religion where I got C's. "Needs to make an effort. Does not apply his gift in any way to this subject".
I couldn't help but be proud of my 12 year old self.

Evidence.

 

"Opinions are like buttholes... No one likes the smell of anyone else's except their own! "

 

That's like my year 12 report card after the first term. I think it was all effort based. Anyway, straight A's except for a 1 unit subject called Applied Studies. I didn't do the homework for it because I figured I knew it anyway, no need to write stuff on paper. So the teacher gave me maybe something like a B. She said she was sad or unhappy to mess up that report card. But really, I couldn't give a toss.

Anyway, I did bugger all work for that subject all year (I think after term 1 we all agreed with the teacher to not have any more formal classes for this subject except we had to sign something to say we'd study it ourselves... I can't remember exactly anymore!)... anyway I ended up equal 7th in the State for it (top 1% of students). This was achieved with pretty much no effort save for maybe a cram/quick review of a couple of documents that covered the full subject syllabus 1 or 2 days just before the exam.... I just made sure I understood everything in the sylabus. Easily self taught since I think I innately knew and could apply most of what was in that syllabus anyway before even going into year 12.

Anyway, my first degree is a Science degree. I like having a science grounding. And having my belief system based on science grounds. And if new evidence shows something else which might lead to an improvement in modelling which changes a result/expected outcome, i'm happy to adapt.

I think logically... there's no space in my life for living by rules set by religion. I need to understand the why. I did a subject called Mechanisms of Human Disease at uni.... it was a very tough and demanding subject and you had to know everything throughly to do well in the exam. But while doing the subject I found it really facinating to understand the cause of a disease and seeing the effects. So you can see the effects (symptoms) of a disease and then be able to rule out many causes i.e. understand what the disease could be causing these symptoms based on what is presented. (Let me call it Differental diagnosis).

This sort of reasoning also works for understanding the property market. If x happens, (eg. Rate changes) it follows that the effect will be y and z on the property market. (Higher demand/less demand)... whatever. Who would have thought.... anyway, I love this kind of logical thinking.

 

I get it
I did a science degree in molecular cell biology and biotechnology, then medicine, then surgery
A bit like that Marty guy

 

For me it takes being interested in people and if there is a view point that works for me better than my current one, I go with that. My view points change consistently as I gain knowledge.

 

Something similar to that but not quite. Nope. I'm definitely not a Doctor or Surgeon.
I started with doing a Biomedical science which included human biology, haematology, anatomical pathology, immunology etc.
Finished with a B.Sc.. Then I did some studies towards Chiropractic but I really sucked at the skills! But enjoyed the diagnosis type stuff. E.g. looking at x-rays and trying to identify what was wrong with people based on the x-ray and the case info. (But I think with the internet etc. this kind of work is being outsourced to Radiologists in India on any case?.... much cheaper wages). For this the Mechanisms of Human disease was a subject and it was a subject with a lot of interesting content.

Then I did 2x Grad Dip in IT (I was looking to upgrade to Masters the second time but the Uni would make you do subjects I figured would have been a waste of my time and money, like how to get a job....)

Then I did a Grad Cert in Professional Accounting (Tip: simply learning some basic Accounting and Business Law is very useful for property investors)
Then I started a Masters in Commerce but after completing a couple of subjects decided I didn't want to continue studying! While I enjoy learning I figured I didn't necessarily need to continue doing more subjects at uni. But that was very well taught and I can highly recommend Sydney Uni as an institution.

 

Highly debatable. If anything I would argue the opposite.

However as someone who invested 30+ years ago! the big difference is the amount of information available today. Never underestimate the difference the internet has made.
Marg