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Originally Posted by Hanni
So how do you deal with people with these beliefs? Ignorance is bliss seems the easiest solution, however it seems wrong to not try and talk to him as who knows how many people his wife is claiming to "treat".
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The thing is you could bring the most convincing evidence in the world to them and all that will do is make them believe what they do even more strongly; that's a well documented psychological phenomenon.
Unless they've made a deliberate decision to evaluate their beliefs honestly and be willing to change them (i.e. decide not to be tied to a specific belief), then there's little you could do to change their minds.
Plus in verbal discussions like that it's easy for them to make a ton of claims in a few seconds, and properly confirming/refuting each one would take a bunch of research and work, so a discussion favors the person making the claims because while technically the burden of proof falls on the person making the claim, in a discussion we tend to view it the other way; if he makes a claim and you can't refute it or address it right away then it just further confirms to him that he's right and your audience will feel your position is weaker because you can't refute his claims on the spot.
(Which is why science is done through written journals, not verbal debates, winning a debate with good rhetoric doesn't say anything to the validity of the claim)
In those situations now I usually try to stick to asking questions, or speaking in generalities about science and evidence and such and how their claims fit within such criteria. The right questions can quickly show the claims are based on nothing.
And even that I might not do depending on the situation; if it's a co-worker, I have to work with them so it probably isn't worth alienating the guy over. My sister has quite a few conspiracy style beliefs left over from her old boyfriend, and while we'll joust a bit around it we usually don't directly engage since I'd much prefer her in my life.