A closed mind (or closed-minded) is someone unreceptive to new ideas or information.
Is this an attack directed towards me?
Meaning, as stated above, not that people are shoving their opinions on to you but that you are not receptive to those opinions.
There is a difference between agreeing with everything someone says and being a total idealogical pushover like you seem to be suggesting.
Not everyone is trying to force you to accept their opinions, they merely want you to take them into consideration rather than trash the simply because it's not what you believe.
Which I never recall doing. I have people saying that I am closed minded and forcing my opinions on them by commenting and writing articles. Explain to me how that is closed minded?
This here is proof of what I mean. You are not open-minded, you are "my way or the highway". Open-minded allows for other ideas to get in, giving you a chance to look at you opinions and rethink them to see if what you believe in still holds water. Your mentality is more of a "match and pair" type where you take someones ideas or opinions and put them side by side with yours and if they don't match they are automatically rejected.
I listen to other people's ideas, I just don't accept them without an "insane" amount of evidence.
LOL, I will be open-minded (as you say) and request "letter to letter" proof that you are open enough to change your beliefs. So far, I have yet to see you concede a single argument I have read where you were involved.
Of course not. Why concede when you can win? There's no such thing as losing an argument.
Just admit it like Lula did. She was honest enough to admit her opinions are absolute as seen below:
Fine. I have many absolute opinions. More, all of my opinions, even the non-absolute ones, are strongly held and require nothing short of a blatant disproving (for example, proving that paper can bend).
That comes close to describing you except you are absolute minded about everything even if it has nothing to do with breaking Gods laws.
I just don't find much other than God's laws worth any debate at all. When have you heard me take up a debate on whether cats or dogs are smarter, for example? (Cats win, by the way)
Personally, I don't care anymore. I do my part to express my opinion whether it's in line with someone or opposing their opinions. I do my best to back up my opinions and am willing to consider that my opinions could be wrong if enough evidence is shown against them. Whether you are willing to listen and consider anything I have to say or not is not my concern anymore. In the end we are all humans capable of making mistakes and constantly sinning so you can be absolute in your opinions all you want, you are no God or anything close to it so you have just as much of a chance of being wrong as any one of us. So if you wanna believe you are correct 100% that's your right. Just don't expect people to accept it without something to say about it. After all what did you expect would happen on a blog site after you post an article? Wasn't your intention to get feedback on the article? Or were you naive enough to believe that only positive feedback would grace your articles? I think you need to go back and have a talk with your pastor, priest or religious mentor. Or maybe even Lula. Even she seems more receptive to other peoples opinions even though her beliefs are absolute.
If I only wanted positive feedback, I'd've gone to a religious site long ago to blog. On the contrary- I dare anyone to disprove me. When have I ever called myself perfect? Show me. People state a "holier than thou" attitude about me. I make no claims of holiness. I merely claim to have found the Truth.
Actually, no. Being close-minded means that you have reached a conclusion on a particular subject with little or no analysis of the data. Or, perhaps you performed an analysis of the data at hand and reached a conclusion, but when new data arises that warrants new analysis, you refuse to do so, sticking with your original conclusion despite contrary information that should cause you to re-evaluate your stance.
I do lots of analysis. I research anything that comes along. This contrary information just doesn't seem powerful enough, or from a reliable enough source to warrant any opposition.
Pretend you are a fellow living in the stone age. You have your handy spear with a sharpened rock on the end with which you kill animals for food and clothing, etc. You live in a small tribe made up of several families that has been pretty much the same for many generations, moving nomadically around the same several hundred mile radius. Because everything has been the same for such a long time, ways of doing things, lifestyle etc, your tribe has created a religion that pretty much explains how everything works.
Every night your tribe starts a fire for which they thank the Fire God for his wonderful gift, and you pay hommage to the various Spirits and Gods that you believe have provided you with the bounty of food from hunting, water for drinking etc. Life is good, and everything makes sense!
Then one day strange looking people from the next valley over arrive and they are a strange sight to behold indeed! They have strange shiny weapons that cut like no stone weapon could ever cut and they even possess a strange kind of magic that can make small spears fly through the air like birds over great distances. Here's where the distinction between closed-minded and open-minded comes into play.
A close-minded person will stick with their original beliefs despite new information, and believe that these new people are either highly favoured by the Gods in the magical tools that have been bestowed on them, or perhaps they are evil demon-spirits with equally strange magic that gives them their powers. The close minded-person will regardless fear these new people with their supposed magical powers and probably will eventually try to fight them off, or decide it's time to run away.
What does this have to do with anything? That example is pretty much nothing. I believe in the laws of the world as were set down by God, therefore I find nothing to be "magical" or "arcane" or "mystical", unless it has literally something to do with prayer or witchcraft.
An open-minded person will take the new information they have been given and re-analyze the situation. They will not fear these new people right from the get-go but instead will try to understand why and how these people do the things they do. They may even come to the conclusion that these other folk are just regular people like themselves, only that they have learned about metal working and archery, which is not magic at all!
This is an example of simple learning, not philosophical outlook.
Being close-minded is to live in a self-created prison, in which you pen yourself in by beliefs that are absolute and can never, ever change regardless of what new data you may come across. In all fairness, everyone is closed-minded to some degree, just some much moreso than others.
Beliefs that never change are not a weakness. They are a strength. I have never found any new data to disprove God. I'll admit I'm not entirely open-minded, but until you manage to bring me God's corpse, I will not believe that "God is dead.". Therefore, I am very open-minded.
Being open-minded means living a much more fulfilling and deep life. If you live life with an open mind you will find that you change your stance on topics many times as you learn that there is no such thing as a one-sided issue and that life very rarely boils down to "black and white, good or bad"
Then you are giving into compromise with every step. Instead of standing upon a firm foundation, you build your house upon a swamp or upon the swirling sands of the desert. You are weak, lack a spine, lack a moral compass, lack a spirit, lack assertiveness except that which comes from greed or fear, lack justice, lack freedom, and, above all, give up hope for a mushy brain.
If you life with a closed mind, the person you hurt the most is yourself as you deprive yourself from the joy that is growth and discovery that comes through investigation and analysis!
I have no clue what you mean by that. I live life with plenty of investigation and analysis, despite what you seem to say about being closed-minded. How is rejecting your theological beliefs for my own "closed-mindedness"?
