DISQUS

Skeptics are far more open-minded than woo-woo believers.

Here's how it works: I am called "Closed-Minded" all the time by believers in alternative medicine, ghost believers, UFO proponents, and 9-11 conspiracy theorists.

Actually, I was totally open to such suggestions, until I went to college and developed what are known as "critical thinking skills". I then researched these subjects, and found their claims to be implausible, and their evidence to be shaky at best, or just plain made-up.

I then changed my mind about these subjects, and realized that woo-woo is very attractive, very sexy, and makes sense to those who NEED them to be true in order to validate their beliefs.

Unlike me, believers are FAR more closed-minded. They don't know any of the details behind their beliefs, and NO MATTER WHAT AMOUNT of evidence to the contrary of their beliefs, they will NOT change their minds. They just change the goalposts for their "gold standards" of proof of their beliefs, thus always avoiding the process of rational thought and conclusion, thus avoiding the pain of realizing that their beliefs are based in nothing at all. This can be very very painful indeed, and thus renders then closed-minded to the extreme, like a religious person who refuses to see any of the paradoxes and complete mistruths that plainly debunk their ideas, beliefs and dogmas.

Closed-minded, indeed.