Open mindedness has got to be the most misunderstood concept by pretty much everybody who uses the term. I don't really get how it happened. Oh, wait! I forgot how powerful the media was for a second. Now don't get me wrong, I do NOT think that open mindedness is a bad thing. However, what we're being taught about open mindedness is incorrect, harmful and even destructive.
Question: What does having an open mind REALLY mean?
Answer: To be open minded is to be deliberately thoughtful about everything we hear. There are gazillions of lies out there but there is also truth. So to be open minded is an active search for the truth.
- What it is NOT is a passive state of being, which so many people think it is. These are the people who tell others that they aren't open minded. It mainly comes up when atheists condemn religion, and when political issues arise like gay marriage or abortion. Why? Two reasons:
- Emotions aren't bad; they're actually good. We naturally have feelings and thankfully they keep all us from becoming Spocks. I'm happy that we have emotions (see I used one to make a point).
- When issues like the ones I mentioned earlier arise, people get wound up really quickly. It's sad that so many lies are out there about each side, and propaganda is pushed usually by both sides at least to some degree. It's almost always propaganda aimed at emotion and not reason. Accusation is more effective in triggering emotions than logic; yelling rather than calm conversation; public attention rather than a small group or one on one.
- Another way to abuse emotion is shown perfectly on the topic I wrote about in my last article Tell Me Again How I Hate Rape Victims. Who doesn't have compassion for rape victims? Maybe only rapists and/or total jerks. Unable to resist, the pro-choice movement picked up on this lie and hammered it into people's heads that if you aren't pro-choice, you hate rape victims and women in general. To anyone who sits down with any slightly educated pro-lifer, it's obvious that this claim just isn't true.
- Things change when emotions are triggered (exponentially so if we already had trust for the source) and the filters of our mind like common sense and logic (and philosophy if you get crazy) turn off and the brainwashing begins.
- It's natural to get riled up and lost in emotion, of course, but think about what that does to our "active' search? It slows it, often stops it in its tracks. Unfortunately, if something is not active, it's passive, right? By letting our emotions get the better of us we we turn off our minds and anyone who happens to be listening. It's very important keep emotions under control to become and remain an open minded individual.
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| The pride before the fall? |
2) Pride
- What better tool to block someone from the truth but by the person themself. This is sort of the case with emotion, but emotion isn't all bad. Pride is all bad. Confidence is good, but pride is not. It's the line between the two that's important, and I think that the way to tell where confidence ends is to realize where we become passive in our search for truth. It looks different in all of us. So I'll give a few examples.
- Suppose I take a position, then realize I see the truth somewhere else but am too embarrassed to admit it. That's pride.
- Suppose I assume a group of people is stupid/insane because of something about them. Then I go even further as to treat them as if I am intellectually superior, giving no thought to anything they say. I smell pride.
- Suppose I'm reading/hearing/watching something I disagree with. If I'm sitting there saying, "Wrong! Wrong!" without even trying to understand the point, much less the perspective of what being presented, then give me a merit badge cause I'm in the pride patrol.
- Suppose I argue a point repeatedly trying to convince myself that I'm right by using someone else to argue against (psh, I never do this, right mom?). Yep, that's pride.
Ok? Cool.
So what are the ways that we can avoid falling into an open mind counterfeit?
First, a truly an open mind tries to have understanding for the who and where from a fact, opinion or argument is coming. People aren't usually evil, so they often do have either good logic, faulty logic, no logic or logic clouded by emotion. It's not only helpful to actively listen to others when they talk; it's also the right thing to do.
So, I would say then that we must develop a love for the truth. With a love for the truth, we can learn to drop both unnecessary emotion and the need to be right. That second part might seem a little contradictory to some people, but think about it. If figuring out the truth matters more to someone than proving themselves right, suddenly the pride that keeps them from admitting they were wrong is gone.
The worst and most damaging kind of passive attitude is what some falsely label "tolerance". This idea that if someone disagrees with the way I live, then they're oppressing me and intolerant. This demand that we all embrace false "tolerance" is nothing less than discrimination. It doesn't matter what your beliefs are. Calling someone a bigot because they believe in right and wrong is slander, or at the very least ignorant. It's just incorrect unless the definition of bigot has changed too.
How is the only sin left in society to believe in sin?
The only ones who are stood against, are those who stand for something concrete?
How bad is this attack on right and wrong for us, especially us Christians? It's the most unnatural and publicly destructive movement for the reason that 'ol Snakebite gives in Peter Kreeft's book. Sin is the only thing that is clearly and unmistakably visible to anyone who looks around on the street, flips on the news or has come into contact with even one other person at some point in life. Without the possibility of absolute truth, right and wrong are defined by humans, so they are not real in the least bit. Without being able to perceive sin there is no perceived need for salvation.
But what do I know, anyway? Not much, so that's why I'm keeping an open mind, looking for the truth constantly.
...but what if what they say is true?
What if there really is no truth? *gasp*
Don't worry. I contend that it's impossible, just look at math. What does a number look like, feel like, taste like? It doesn't because it doesn't exist in the physical world just like truth. And just like math tells us that 4 is the square root of 16, we can know that there is right and wrong. It exists outside of the physical and still functions in reality as it governs every aspect of our lives. Yet, we have free will and I can say that the square root of 16 is 95 million as often as I want, but I'll be incorrect every time. In the same way, there is absolute good and evil and we can freely choose which one we want to go on. We are free to be right or wrong, but living and believing in the goodness makes as much sense as living with the understanding that 1+1=2 every time I try it, no matter how many times I try to tell it that 1+1=7 for me.
You have your truth and I have mine?
That's like saying 1+1 =2 and 1+1 =7 at the same time.
Don't be closed to truth. Open your mind.
Peace.
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