I grew up in a very religious (technically a cult) setting. Earlier in my life, I believed some of it. I bristled at the suggestion that what I'd been taught mi

I grew up in a very religious (technically a cult) setting. Earlier in my life, I believed some of it. I bristled at the suggestion that what I'd been taught might be wrong. I relished in the opportunity to practice "apologetics" and debate non-believers - a concept that appealed to me deeply at the time. And then, I grew up and left the bubble. I was fortunate enough to get a job working with people who held diverse viewpoints. I still found myself resisting those viewpoints instinctively, but I learned something that surprised me at the time: the people who held those viewpoints were good people! Who'd have thought? I'd been told those people were the enemy. Unbelievers, sinners, "of this world". As my relationships with those people grew, the cracks in my own belief systems started to grow. I'm now in my mid 30s, and would describe my mindset as that of a scientist. I'm excited to learn when I'm wrong, because it means I learned something new about the world. I often think about the people I left behind, many of whom are still deeply in the bubble. I wonder if I got out because I was predisposed to have an open mind, and when given the opportunity I took it, or if I was just exposed to the right combination of things to help me see the light. All of this to follow up on this: > Does anyone else find it hard to personally connect with the well-researched claim that people respond with a fight-or-flight response to ideas that challenge their core beliefs? I can still feel some kind of connection to that early version of myself, or at least I know it was there and now it's not. This history has established within me some empathy for people who still do react poorly to new ideas, and I've found that it helps me better understand (not accept) the viewpoints of others around me that might otherwise seem insane. Edit: I know it's not great to complain about downvotes, but I'm really puzzled here.