Do you feel that questioning your belief structure is healthy or detrimental to your "cause"?

A good gage for me is evaluating what I believe in comparison to Doodlebug-gin Jim and Kendrick. Neither of them believe that feminism is relevant or still necessary and I do. But those two guys are extremely knowledgeable and come up with intelligent arguments. Recently Doodlebug-gin posted up a question about whether he should be pressured to shift his work assignments to accommodate a lady about to go on paternity leave. I've always believed that companies should create a climate accommodating to working mothers and I still maintain it but that post enlightened me about the right and wrong ways to go about it.

Kendrick gave me a good education in his response to this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtbKx...

I've actually been spending some time researching what he's talking about, particularly the part about the origin of social construction theories.

Do I ever feel threatened or insecure about someone else shooting holes in my theories or my belief system unraveling? No I do not because I don't feel like I'm out there on a ledge or like I have anything to prove.

Not JUST 'healthy", but VITAL!

Because our knowledge of life, the universe and everything is constantly changing, so should our beliefs about it.

I consider my own belief-system to be a work-in-progress that will, hopefully, NEVER be completed. Each new bit of information learned is like a treasure found! When we add it to what is already there, it should be like adding a new bucket of paint into a large vat - each new bucketful should change the color in the vat at least a little bit.

(Naturally, the brightest buckets will bring the most change, while those that most closely resemble what is already there will change it the least.)

If I ever believed I had learned the last new thing there ever was "out there" to be learned, I would feel like Alexander the Great when he sat down and cried in frustration because he thought he had run out of new territory to conquer.

Every time you are exposed to something new, it is healthy to compare it as a whole AND in parts to your being. Even if all you can do is agree to disagree, there are times when alternative methods and philosophies work toward a greater good. However, contemplating such things and putting them into action are two different things - being ignorant of new ideas is close to being dead.

Wisdom is a moving target.

What it was a wise decision today could be a fatal one tomorrow.

Because of this, the only sane solution is to reevaluate our values.And for doing so we need to question them.

How do we question our values if we only hear the opinion of the ones that think as ourselves? The answer is, we cannot.

All belief systems inevitably question and undermine themselves. There is no escaping the laws of slippage and fragmentation. That's why it is better to have non-systemic beliefs, whimsical, existential. Also keeps agents of Control at bay. End transmission.

I feel it's the only way I can grow. If I blindly believe everything I'm taught, I'm letting other think for me (I love my parents and respect their values). But I want to make my own decisions about such things.

It's very healthy actually. People you know may not really question your beliefs for fear of hurting you or enraging you. So it is up to us to evaluate ourselves. I do it unconsciously every now and then.

Definitely - scepticism is the enemy of dogmatism, even in yourself. Anyway, questioning you beliefs and finding that they're valid just makes them stronger - good theories have nothing to fear from being tested :-)

I think it's very healthy. It means you aren't blindly following the party line.

It's the best thing that can happen, especially from others; when you stick to your beliefs you know you're in for good.