Some things people have said to me lately have torqued me off. Now I'm not saying I have any right not to get torqued off. I guess I'm frustrated more with myself for failing to convey what I know to others without using words that, for them, are loaded with negative connotations and lots of baggage. The older people get, the less they are able to shed that stuff and see things anew.

I have been trying to train myself to do it, but it doesn't mean that anyone else can or even knows what that means or is willing to try. I guess it torques me off when people say, "You are an intelligent person, so I just don't see WHY you can believe/think xyz...." Talk about a loaded statement!

Or..."You must be listening/following Person X....who I think is total idiot..."

It's also frustrating when people confuse fact and opinion. As in:

1. There are facts. Not disputable. They are what they are.
2. There are opinions. Those are disputable. People can argue for days because they are subjective.

3. THEN there are facts that, despite being FACTs, that I, being human, cannot empirically prove or disprove, though there are some other humans who may come closer to doing so than I can, because they are better at explaining/science/apologetics, or whatever the topic, than I am.

I have gone through these with both Christian and non-Christian people.

I have gone through all kinds of questions, from whether sea salt and lab-created salt are the same thing (YES, there is no such thing as "well we'll agree to disagree" because sodium chloride is sodium chloride, it's a compound no matter where it comes from) through "are there moral absolutes?" (YES, and if you don't believe that, examine your heart...they are just called something else other than "moral absolutes"...but they are the same thing...when you're hearing Chuck Kolson or Jerry Falwell or the Pope, are you really hearing your old legalistic childhood preacher or old nun who whacked you on the wrists with a ruler, or prudish spinster aunt Matilda, or your abusive judgmental father...so the words carry baggage and memories and toxic connotation, so you are too clouded to think about it anew...we really need plain and simple language that has no baggage, but there is no such thing...that's why language always changes and the language of 2 generations ago in ANY languages sounds so stuffy and stilted and silly and backwards. EXAMINE it, though. It was the vernacular of the day. They are probably saying the same thing you really agree with.)