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What makes these two topics different from deciding how to wear your hair or what is your favourite T.V. show.

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Your hair style and your choice of TV shows just bore the crap outta me, Kathleen. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Settle down! Please! I was kidding.

IMO, folks' opinions/beliefs about politics and religion go just a tad deeper inside them than the other topics. Fashion and entertainment styles, and genre popularity, change almost overnight. Their politics and religion change, usually and if at all, very slowly. They evolve, in my experience. True, some never change.

Personally, I've gone from rabid right-wing hawk to a very centrist person. My religious beliefs, when much younger, were quite rigid. The changes/adjustments I've made weren't because of any single event. I can't claim any epiphanies.

Reading, listening and trying to understand the other side (usually looking for a way to argue against), got me where I am today. I'm much happier and like to think a better person - usually.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin (one of my few idols, on many levels), "In polite conversation, never discuss religion, politics or the weather. You'll never agree, they lead to arguments and there's nothing you can do to change an opinion about any of them."