The distinction between this line of reasoning and the argument based on blocking the means is as follows: in the latter we said that agreement with them in minor matters invites agreement in major ones, whereas here the very type of conformity confuses the common people about their religion to the point that they can no longer tell right from wrong. The first explanation rests on how natural dispositions pursue what they desire, while the second concerns the ignorance of hearts with respect to their beliefs.

Seventh consideration:

In explaining the root principle of resemblance, I stated that God—magnified is He—has fashioned the children of Adam, indeed all created beings, so that two similar things inevitably interact with one another. The greater the resemblance, the fuller the exchange of traits and qualities, until the two are no longer distinguishable except in their individual essence. Because human beings share the same specific genus, their mutual influence is the strongest. Between man and the rest of the animals there is resemblance in the intermediate genus, and therefore a corresponding degree of interaction must occur. Between man and plants the resemblance is in a remote genus, yet even there some measure of interaction is unavoidable.

It is on account of this principle that influence and counter-influence take place among the children of Adam, and that each acquires some of the traits of another through close association and imitation