Homosexuality And Beliefs In Evidence, By Kathryn Schulz

“Evidence” by Kathryn Schulz covers the topic of exactly what our beliefs are based on, and just how hard it is for us to admit we are wrong. Throughout our lives, we all experience moments when we realize we were wrong about something. For a majority of the time, these moments are small and somewhat insignificant to the rest of our lives. However, that is not always the case. You probably cannot imagine the difficulty of discovering a belief you held for your entire life was utterly wrong, yet that is exactly what happened to me. I needed very little evidence to form my original beliefs, and this evidence was not high quality or impartial in the least. Not only that, but I needed far more evidence to change my beliefs than what was needed
I grew up in a very small, extremely conservative, town and was surrounded by these beliefs for my whole life. I attended church every sunday, went to school in town, and would spend time with my friends during the week. Everywhere I went, being gay was seen almost as a social crime, let alone the religious crime it was in the church. As a young, impressionable, child I heard so much about this topic that by the time I was in Kindergarten, this belief was also solidified in me. In her article, Kathryn Schulz states, “Although small amounts of evidence are sufficient to make us draw conclusions, they are seldom sufficient to make us revise them” (371). I serve as a perfect example to this statement, as I eventually changed my beliefs even though it took a lot of
I was completely oblivious to the fact that some of the friends I had made in my first few weeks of classes were gay, however I think this is a huge factor in what helped change my beliefs. We were all struggling to acclimate to our new school environment together, we all had fun complaining about our classes with each other, and we all spent time in the cafe when we could. I had spent so many years believing that gay people were almost a completely different breed of human, that there was something inherently wrong with them, yet there we were together as best friends laughing and having fun. Towards the end of our first semester, one of my friends came out to me as gay. It took a friendship, several months, and that friend coming out to me in order for me to change my belief. That is far more than the several words I had heard from the people in my town to originally formulate this belief. Another example of this is when Schulz recounts a story told to her by a woman named Elizabeth O’Donovan. In this story, Elizabeth and her friend are arguing about whether Orion is a winter constellation, with Elizabeth arguing that it is not. Elizabeth and her friend are standing in a parking lot during December when they look into the sky and see Orion. Rather than admit she was wrong, however, Elizabeth states, “That’s weird. Orion shouldn’t be out now; it’s a summer constellation” (371). Both of these stories