[quoted via ~scottyd~ in this post]

"Rigidity arises from the attempt to achieve stability (security) through paralysis - if nothing changes, then everything will be all right. (Such rigidity is part of the popular caricature of the conservative, but how often do people of any stripe admit fundamental errors in their view of things?)

If you get out of step in a subculture you are often subtly made to feel if not crazy, then guilty, or stupid, or anything else that will pressure you back into the pack. And these feelings heighten if you assume that everyone else believes what they do for unimpeachable reasons, while your difficulties merely evidence your own weakness, recalcitrance, or bad manners.

Sometimes that may be the case, but often reflective people are out of step because they sense that something is not right. They may be confused themselves. but they should be listened to.

--from The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment by Daniel Taylor