How the Influence of Others Can Change One's Beliefs

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When an infant is born it is born without knowledge or fear of the world. As they grow they start to develop their own beliefs based on the influence of other people. The same idea can be seen throughout history. The words and actions of other people have caused many great events. Memorable events almost always have a person, or many people that influenced them. People change their beliefs based on the way that other people have influenced them. Through others words and actions beliefs are constantly evolving. It can be seen throughout history that doubt causes people to change their beliefs, because new facts and ideas start to present themselves through people, and time.

Beliefs and influences are two very strong ideas. Beliefs are an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. They are created through experiences you have, causing you to accept or believe in something. Influences are the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. These effects on a person are what causes them to change what they currently believe is to be true. They start to cause doubt within a person. The Enlightenment period held a great change in beliefs of the world, particularly Europe. Citizens of Europe began to doubt everything they had once believed in. During this time the views of government drastically changed. These evolutionary changes came about because millions of people were influenced by someone that caused them to doubt their personal beliefs.

King Henry VIII was once known as the defender of the faith. This was important to the people of England because many of them were very devout Catholics, as was he. Kings were a common influence on thei...

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...ry to go into great debt, which did not settle well with the middle and lower class. In 1789 the Bastille was stormed during riots in Pairs, beginning the French Revolution, but they did this because they were influenced by their king, and began to doubt his actions. The citizen’s doubt in the king caused them to change their beliefs in government, no longer approving an absolute monarch.

Time and time again we see people changing their beliefs because of someone else. Every interaction a person has affects them in one way or another to cause them to doubt what they once held to be true. “Doubt grows with knowledge.”- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Wolfgang’s words still hold true today, as they did during the Enlightenment. If it wasn’t for people’s doubts we would not be where we are today. As for the doubts of today we would not be able to progress for the future.