The brain develops in stages.

As a child one is literally incapable of much rational thought at all. This is due to a combination of limited world experience and that their minds simply have not yet been sufficiently wired.

As a result, it is not beyond the realm of possibility for a child to believe ridiculous things. An example is a fat dude in a red suit dropping down the chimney at night and leaving presents for a dead guys birthday.

If a child is particularly bright they may say "wait, how does that work exactly?"

But even that bright child generally will ultimately say "it just is" and be happy with that explanation. Most would not even bother considering the possibility this wild tale is not true.

Not everything is a cut-and-dry as the existance of Santa Clause though. And the "it just is" mentality is sometimes hard to find.

One raised in a particular culture with little exposure outside of that will generally only see things through this limited view.

For example, if one were new to this debate site, and had lived their entire life believing and surrounded by people who believed in Krsna or whomever, may say something ridiculous in a religious debate like "it is proof god exists because a snake left a flower before the sacred statue of such and such" - that actually happened.

Sounds ridiculous to Christians and atheists alike, and the individual seemed shocked the rest of us could be so confused.

In reality, it was a case of one being incapable of seeing outside of that specific world view they had been exposed to. It was not that they believed this thing was proof, people take ridiculous things as proof all the time. Christians are the worst imo at this, but this isn't about religion.

The point is not what was believed, but a seeming incapacity to understand how others could question what they believed. It is a sign of one being very immersed in one specific culture only.

The problem with this in adulthood, is that the brain has become "hardwired" if you will.

At this point it is far more difficult to change the way one views anything.

When you finally tell a child (or they figure it out on their own) that there is no such thing as Santa Clause, it is an easy transition.

When the "it just is" subject, whatever that may be to an adult, is exposed as being not true, or at least questionable,

most will not make the transition to viewing it from another angle as a child would, instead they begin to set up these kinds of "firewalls" in their mind in order to protect the viewpoints already completely developed. It doesn't matter how ridiculous the viewpoint is either, and it is always hard to find, because as adults these firewalls become quite tricky. "I'm not racist, but..." for instance, is a case of one likely being racist since they had to say it, yet having set up this firewall of sorts. They were raised a certain way, and try as they might, seeing the world beyond that point may be difficult. They know being racist is socially unacceptable, and they maybe do not want to be or at least don't want to be considered racist, so they pre-empt some racist comment with "yeah but I'm not."

You see it all the time, grown people believing ridiculous things - well, believing ridiculous things is okay sometimes, but even refusing to accept that another could even question these ridiculous things is where the problem lies.

This is not usually do to stupidity. It is due to their background, and having never bothered looking at the world from any other vantage - or waiting too long to start trying to look at the world from different viewpoints.

I Think That Where You Come From Does Affect Your Viewpoint Because The Customs That Some Places Have Might Change Peoples Morals.

There is no doubt that life backgrounds and experiences dictate viewpoints. No question.

We've brought up different ways customs affect how people view the world, but what about just within our own society? How does living in a small town, for example, differ from living in a big city?