Beliefs - one way of looking at anything

How stuck we are in our opinions and ideas about things, that looking at it another way becomes almost impossible. It is with such a passion that we believe our point of view is correct, that we become so closed to looking at things differently. At that moment we don't even realize the narrowness with which we are looking at a subject, because we have a 100 reasons to back us up on why we are looking at something in a particular way.
Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of a very firey debate with an uncle of mine. To tell you the truth, I'm not really much of a debate kind of person....I believe everyone has a certain perception with which they view life, and so I dislike forcing people to look at things my way. But yesterday the topic took such a turn, that because i could not believe my ears on what views i was hearing, i just had to jump in. He condemned a certain religious belief and made extremely fanatic comments against them. When i retaliated as to how he could generalize his views against the entire community, he lashed out against how I shouldn't even call myself part of his religious belief to be making comments pro the other religion that he so despised. At this point I was extremely calm and answered that I was actually not part of any religion so it did not matter to me. He then told me how he couldn't believe that if people of the other faith wrote abuses on the wall against his faith which he thought even i was a part of, I would just stay quiet. He said he believed it was because of such people who dont stand up against the other community, that they are being allowed to live in this country today.
I was seriously shocked at his beliefs, but I realized how strongly he held them, that no amount of talking would get us anywhere. And as I have heard someone say, most of the times the whole conflict in the world is one belief against another belief. There is no way out on that. Because talking can take you in loops and mazes and circles....but it cannot change beliefs, view points on issues. It is only an experience that has the power to bring such a change in a human being. When using our own senses, we experience something much bigger than all this, when we experience something that breaks our old beliefs, thats when we start opening up. Thats when we start realizing that there are infact several ways to look at the same thing......