Suppose somebody comes up to you and wants to seriously engage you in the question of whether the moon is made of green cheese. The person is very serious, earnest, wants you to understand that this is an important matter.
What should you do? Should you laugh in their face? Excuse yourself politely?
Let us further say that you have agreed to hold this debate, and you somehow let it slip that you think the entire idea of the moon being made of green cheese is absurd.
The person is now mad at you, as any believer in lunar green cheese would be. But you can probably shrug this off.
What happens when a lot of people want to engage you in this topic? What happens when it seems very important to these people, this question of the green cheesiness of the moon? There are debates, seminars, experts flown in from all over the world to participate in the anxious arguments on this topic.
If, in such a climate, you say “I don’t believe in green cheese on the moon,” then it will be seen that you have chosen sides – you are in the “no green cheese camp.” This is the way many will see you. In a sense you will be defined by this question, and your negative answer to it. You will become, in people’s eyes, the green cheese disbeliever.
In such a scenario, it doesn’t matter how many successes and compliments you recieve in life. You are the “green cheese disbeliever”, and so you shall remain.
Am I the only one who finds something wrong with this picture?