Trial by fire has its purposes

Ideologies don't have to be insular and defensive; they can be open and willing to engage. 

The proof that an ideology is non-absolutist is the presence of a narrative arc with a dramatic component, some testing moment, some training activity, which subjects the convictions of the ideology to do battle with opposing, and possibly even just as legitimate, beliefs and ideological positions. 

Trial by fire has its purposes. Competition leads to refinement of the position, and to a deepening and an enriching of one's convictions. 

The dialectic is not just a procedural process; it is a lived experience that produces lived outcomes. 

Any ideology that will brook no challenge is moribund.