Are you open minded?

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I'm open-minded to listening to new ideas, but that doesn't mean I readily accept everything I'm told. I have varying degrees of belief.

Generally, I don't like to deal with the realm outside of "stuff that can be tested". For this reason, I spend very little time worrying about God, magical unicorns dancing on rainbows, and what goes on past the event horizon of a black hole. These topics can be fun to think about and I'd gladly engage in any discussion about them, but to me, they can't be proven conclusively because they aren't based on repeatable phenomena. Good science is based upon studying repeatable events and making judgments accordingly. If you die, you die. You don't come back to tell the world about your marvelous out-of-body experience. And there's no reasonable way to test it because it's based upon personal experience. Even if you do come back from the dead and tell your story, there may be other explanations. Believing or not believing is just conjecture. So in response to a question like what happens after we die, all I can do is just shrug and say "I don't know." Because I don't know! If you ask me what I believe, though, that's another story. And there's no way you can prove my belief system wrong if the whatever it is is untestable.

I believe in "probabilities". Just because something is highly unlikely to occur doesn't mean it can't occur. It just means, even if can happen, you're never likely to see it in your lifetime. Or anybody else's, for that matter.

If I said the sun won't rise tomorrow, that's both a prediction and a testable hypothesis. The way to prove me wrong is by waiting until tomorrow and seeing what really happens. But what you CAN argue is that it's highly unlikely... particularly if you know about the trajectory of the planet. You can point out mountains of evidence in favor of your viewpoint. But all the same, reasonably you'd also need to admit that there may be a small possibility of it happening, no matter how minute. Because who knows? Maybe there's an invisible comet heading straight towards us that we haven't been able to detect. Maybe it could throw us off course just enough so that the sun wouldn't "rise"! All the same, though, there hasn't been any record of such a comet, and based upon what we've experienced, it hasn't yet happened. So the probability, even if it can happen, is very tiny. Put in a different way... I'd bet my money on the most probable outcome.

What I believe to be close-minded is when people ignore good evidence when it doesn't match their personal view point. I've had to accept some rather crappy truths because I've been presented with strong evidence in favor. The only thing I can do is come up with another, different explanation that also explains x, y, z. In that case, the argument can continue until more evidence is presented.

(Blah, got a bit carried away. Haha. If anyone wants to paraphrase my argument in a simpler and more concise manner, feel free.)

I am now, but definitely wasn't when I was younger.

I remember writing a paper on abortion in college and adding a line in there "Any woman who gets an abortion should be murdered herself." If the past me got a DeLorean and came and met the current me I would knock her out!

Meeting all sorts of people and getting to understand their backgrounds has helped a lot to open my mind.

VERY open minded. Very critical thinking skills. Am a scientist, an inventor and thinker. MUST be open minded.

Open minded =/= blindly believing utter nonsense



I wouldn't. I've been told I have above average intelligence, but I don't think I do.

Yes. Opening it too far can make it possible for one's brain to fall out.

Your point further supported by the amount that said no.

I used to think it was nonsense too, when I was younger. Funny what having an open mind and actually doing some thorough investigating can bring about.

I'm also open to the idea of it being nonsense again.

Don't open it enough, and it withers from lack of sunlight.

You watched the Tim Minchin video right?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFO6ZhUW38w&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

But I do not agree. You can have an open mind but you need to use critical thinking. I suggest watching the entire video at the beginning.

ummmm... being "open minded" is ALL ABOUT being a critical thinker. Those who are not blindly follow and believe and subsequently NEVER learn. Critical thinking is ALL ABOUT understanding all the facts before forming an opinion from an objective point of view.

I'd say that critical thinking was making discernments about information. You need to open the mind to let fresh information mingle with what you already know. That's when the thinking occurs, critical or otherwise.

You weren't fairly open minded when I created a numerology post.

Oops, I missed your comment Moog.

Where is this thread id be interested in taking a look at it.

I am about just the most closed-minded person in the world. Literally.

I consider myself to be very open minded. And I'm sorry, but I find "don't be so open minded your brain falls out" to be one of the most idiotic sayings of all time. There is always more to be learned about the world, and if people are afraid of the unknown, well, it sucks to be them.

If you were to show me evidence that astrology isn't bulls**t, I'd look at it and consider. But I don't think you can really provide any real evidence because astrology is basically all about providing general statements which anyone can relate to their current situation, and hoping they're gullible to believe this is all some kind of magic.

For example, a random horroscope from today: "You could be on a verbal binge - with more to say and write than others necessarily want to hear! You may feel you need to make clear your role as an 'expert'. It won't be surprising if others leave you to make decisions. You, meanwhile, may be regretting one that you made a few months back and which is now causing you a headache - probably because you're dealing with people who aren't quite as supportive as you imagined they'd be."

That statement can mean any number of things to anyone, it's entirely generic. Everyone upsets people sometimes by saying things FFS.

Another one: "If you haven't organized anything special, perhaps you should. Your voice is likely to carry extra authority. You could also find that in partnership (with someone born under one of the Fire signs), you might achieve an extraordinary deal. If there's a snag, it's that you may need technical assistance that could take until mid-September to have in place."

See that, if you organise some sort of generic event, people will listen to you more, and you might "achieve an extraordinary deal" in a partnership. And you might need technical assistance, which you really can apply to absolutely f**king anything.

So, yeah. Astrology is bulls**t and I challenge you to prove otherwise.