Sick of being "open minded"

[Rageaholic]

I almost put this in the lonely skeptic thread, but I figured it merited it's own topic.

I hate the implication that if you're skeptical of religion, mythology, supernatural, or any out there theory, you're closed minded. As if not believing everything someone says is a bad thing. I know some people can be caught in their ways and stubborn for change (even when hearing convincing arguements from opposing sides), but just because another side of the arguement is brought up does not mean that it's right.

That's why I hated anthropology. They take this "open minded" thing to scary extremes, often justifying the barbaric ways of other cultures. "Oh but it's not barbaric" BULLSHIT!! Human sacrifice is barbaric. Just because they had reasons that may have made sense in the context of the culture does not make it any less batshit insane.

It's fine being open to ideas, but there is a such thing as being so open minded your brains fall out.

[TheHuckster]

Open-mindedness is all about taking others' view points and attempting to reconcile their differences with your view point. If someone is against one thing which you support, but they provide well-thought out reasons, even if you disagree with them, I think at least respecting their reasons and understanding where they are coming from counts as being open-minded. And if you're able to counter their reasons with your own well-thought out reasons, then hopefully their open-minded enough to return the favor.

When I think of close-minded people, I always think of the "Point/Counterpoint" skits on old-school SNL, where a topic will be debated and Jane Curtin makes a statement and all Dan Akroyd has to say to that is, "Jane, you ignorant slut."

If someone makes an invalid point, it's not close-minded to reject that point and therefore the viewpoint. That's what the anthropologists you refer to are missing. If there's no real good reason for human sacrifice, except for their unfounded belief that it will provide a good harvest next year, then that isn't a viewpoint or a reason to respect that viewpoint or culture. And it's absolutely fine to therefore consider their acts to be savage and cruel.

[crashhelmet]

I bash science a lot. I'm sure you've all noticed that in other threads. One of the reasons I do so because of the lack of open mindedness within the community.

There is a scientist in Amsterdam working on a theory and a set of studies that poke some pretty serious holes into Newton's Laws of Gravity. His basis is Thermo & Hydrodynamics and how similar they are in some points and how they defy the laws in others. The scientific community is so set and stubborn in their beliefs about gravity that his work is being discredited before it's even read.

Read his paper
On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton

[Andara Bledin]

Has he thrown his ideas at Hawking and his contemporaries? They've had some fascinating discussions regarding how the event horizon of black holes store the information about what's gone into them as 2-dimentional holographic data and the like.

^-.-^