People don't or cannot change?

When I was 16, I was a committed Christian.

I was brought up to attend a Methodist church, went to Sunday school, attended the church youth club usw. I could quote huge chunks of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, particularly Saint Matthew's Gospel.

At 17 following some fairly in-depth discussions with two close friends, I became convinced that I was mistaken in my beliefs. I became an atheist. Not overnight, it took time.

In the 46 years since then, I have not always been so defined. Between 1995 and 2007, after some discussions with a person from Glasgow whom I would still describe as my closest friend (a devout Catholic), I became instead an atheistically inclined agnostic. The switch back to atheism came in 2008, before my heart attack. Scientific logic, and further study of the issues involved, if you want the reasons. Nearly dying in 2008 merely reinforced my views.

The knowledge of the science concerned has evolved as I have got older. I have a clearer command of the arguments now than I had when I was 17 for example. I am though open to persuasion on anything if the scientific logic is there. This must be positively clear though.

If my "religious" journey has been one of personal evolution, my "political" journey has been notably varied, even erratic. At the age of 16 (again), I was a supporter of the British Conservative Party. Since then, my views have evolved through a whole series of stages (including dancing on the tightrope with Marxism and very briefly with Thatcherism).

Where I am now? Sceptical, but hoping something still can be done. I have my issues - an end to poverty, an end to unemployment, an end to ALL debt, an end to war, international understanding and tolerance, protection of wildlife habitats and ensuring other (endangered) species can survive and not just in zoos. In American terms - as it says on my Twitter profile "Liberal, but not that liberal!".

I am a pragmatist, and also see no point in negative voting, negative advertising, and protesting merely for its own sake. I am still open to persuasion that things will work, but after years of false promises and sheer incompetence, I need to see the hows and the wherefores.

So people can change their views and opinions and their lifestyles. Whether they can effect areas outside of their own lives is, of course, something entirely different.