Persuasion is a terribly strange thing. It has to overcome our personality
types, our histories, our ages, all our past friends and safe influences,
and our willingness to reconsider. We dismiss books and authors for
lacking the right feel or for not sounding like our friends. It’s an impossible
task. Persuasion is magic or more like an unbelievable accident. We
have to be standing at just the right intersection at the exact moment of
time, tilting our head in just one direction to see what we need to see.
It’s astounding we’re ever persuaded of anything new. I guess that’s why
most of us tend to stick forever with views we embraced in high school
or college.-Doug Jones, Dismissing Jesus, xi
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