It’s actually really important to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it.
It’s also important to understand that our thoughts don’t always reflect our beliefs, and that’s normal. Being able to consider things, whether they fit within our morality or not, is actually a critical part of the brain’s function.
The day I learned that like….a large number of people CANT entertain an idea that they don’t believe was…scary. Like lots of people cannot consider “if X was true, what would be the implications” they get stuck at “well, X isn’t true, so I CANT consider the possible implications”
Hmmm…Concerning.
This is a skill that I learned in undergrad. I grew up in a very black-and-white household and was not encouraged to think critically about things. Then in undergrad, I discovered that my professors were more interested in the quality of my argument than in whether I was “right,” so I started writing papers based on either (a) what argument was easiest to make or (b) what argument was the most fun/interesting to make, regardless of how I felt about it. Did I talk myself into some positions? Yes. Did I also learn a lot about making and evaluating arguments? Also yes.