>This, on the other hand, is a way of reconciling the fact that you obviously don't have a good reason to believe the things you do (otherwise, you wouldn't be

>This, on the other hand, is a way of reconciling the fact that you obviously don't have a good reason to believe the things you do (otherwise, you wouldn't be threatened by the mere fact that someone disagrees with you) I don't agree that this is the only reason someone would be threatened by disagreement, or even the main reason. You can feel threatened by disagreement on the basis of the other party acting on their belief, and how that outcome would affect you. As a relevant example, you can feel threatened by someone disagreeing with your stance on abortion if you are pro-choice, because the down-stream implication of pro-life beliefs is legislation and societal constraints that remove your ability to choose. If we're just debating in a vacuum then sure, you would only feel threatened as some kind of ego response. But in the real world beliefs tend to result in real-world consequences, and those consequences are the root cause of feeling threatened by disagreement.