#theoryofmindFail

[erratio]

 (slightly paraphrased, for clarity and faulty memory purposes)

*someone has left a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet on the table in the break room*
Coworker: I hate Jehovah's Witnesses. You shouldn't push your beliefs on other people.
Me: I don't agree with them but I have sympathy for their position.
Coworker: Why?
Me: Well, if you genuinely believed that people would go to Hell for not believing what you believe, wouldn't you try to convert them?
Coworker: What do you mean?
Me: ok, if I believed that there was a man outside this room who killed everyone with blond hair, and you had blond hair, then wouldn't it make sense for me to try to convince you to dye your hair brown so that you won't get killed?
Coworker: Huh?
Me: If I was about to kill myself, you would try to stop me, right?
Coworker: Why would you try to kill yourself?
Me: Maybe I was really depressed, I don't know.
Coworker: Of course I would try to stop you, but what does this have to do with religion?
Me: *gives up*

This was a particularly frustrating conversation for me because so far this is the only coworker who's shown even the slightest glimmer of intellectual curiosity. In fact, 10 minutes before this conversation she loudly declared herself to be 'philosophical'. Seems like being 'philosophical' isn't quite enough to separate beliefs about the world from facts about the world.

Comments

With all due respect ...

[(Anonymous)]

... to your co-worker, I also didn't get the second part of your analogy, about wanting to kill yourself. The first bit was pretty clear though, thank you.

Re: With all due respect ...

[erratio.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it may have been too much of a leap. I was aiming for 'You would stop someone trying to kill themselves because sometimes people genuinely can't recognise what's best for themselves. A highly religious person would try to convert others for much the same reason that you would prevent me from killing myself'