[asa] Re: Scientists Give it Up

I sent this earlier today, but it didn't go through.
-----Original Message-----
From: Debbie Mann [mailto:deborahjmann@insightbb.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 8:52 AM
To: Asa
Subject: Scientists Give it Up_Dealing with YECs

And the lion will lay down with the lamb.

That seems like the easy part.

I read recently that:

peripheral means not central

disagreeing on peripheral issues means that the people involved have common
central issues

Dick, you and Vernon are brothers in Christ who agree on a lot more than
what you disagree on. You are spending your time on the smaller percentage,
ignoring the greater part which is far more essential.

The same article which talked about peripheral mentioned the deadness which
ensues when people don't care enough to disagree.

Dick and Vernon, the Irish Catholics and the Irish Protestants, and such
groups everywhere need to realize that we have a common bond and that this
bond exceeds in importance everything else that exists.

Further, if everyone agreed on everything, we would stagnate like so much
scummy pond water.

One doesn't accomplish any more from calling people names and ranting about
them to their face than one would get from going into an empty room and
doing the same - in fact one accomplishes less because it closes the mind
and ears of the hearer.

If you want someone to hear you - compliment them and agree with them on
something. Work on small issues before big ones. If either of you has raised
blood pressure - let it be. Once you are yelling, very little positive and a
lot negative is going to be accomplished.

If I thought you just wanted to yell and didn't care about the souls of
others - I wouldn't be writing this. But, I think you do care and want to
shovel truth forceably into the brains of others. Can't be done. You have to
open the door first.

If Bob wants to convince a crowd of something and Stan has the opposite
position, then the best thing Bob can do is to be nice to Stan and ask Stan
questions. In fact, the only effective way to manipulate the crowd is for
Bob to get up there and ask Stan innocent sounding, barbed questions until
Stan loses it. At that point, it won't matter how despicable the barbs were
or how good Stan's arguments are - in that crowd, on that day Bob will win
people over and Stan will lose people.

You lose your cool, you lose your audience.

I'm talking about manipulation in the above example. There are better ways
to handle the situation.

Venting can be good and does help the blood pressure on occasion. But, one
should vent selectively to those who agree with one. Make a sublist of those
who agree and vent there. Don't vent to the opposite camp or the
unconverted. It closes their brains. After you have vented, then return to
the list and be convincing, inspiring and persuasive.

Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is still a great
book.

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Received on Tue Jul 25 21:43:55 2006