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Open-Mindedness vs Skepticism |
| Two ends of a spectrum, both very important.Open-Mindedness pros: allows you to give new and possibly innovative ideas a chance.Being open-minded to new ideas can help you better yourself, as well as you society as a whole.A little open-mindedness can progress Human kind a long way.Skepticism Pros: The essence of skepticism is to obtain knowledge through systematic doubt and continual testing.Skepticism exists to keep you from jumping to false conclusions, or making foolish presumptions.It is the moderator of our knowledge.Skepticism can be your defense from logical fallacy, prejudgment, lies, and propaganda.Open-Mindedness cons: Unfortunately being overly open-minded can be very distructive.Open-mindedness can turn to being naiive, with can lead to "false certainty" Just because and idea is original doesn't mean it is progressive, or useful.Open-Mindedness we not used in moderation, can bring you down a path of deception, or may end up making you closed-minded by accepting something as truth too quickly.Skepticism Cons: Being overly skeptical leads to closed-mindedness, or Narrow-Mindedness.If you believe everything you believe in is absolutely certain, then you have only removed the possibility of ever finding the truth.If you are not open to new ideas, then nothing will change, and nothing will progress.Skepticism is in itself something that needs to be put in balance. |
| Skepticism is in itself something that needs to be put in balance.Very few skeptics practice universal skepticism.For example, many skeptics doubt religion, but take science as gospel, even though there are many things in science that we still don't understand completely.Another example is that you can critically think about the flaws in your enemies but not your friends.(ie: Christians who criticize evolution, but don't even give their own religion as second thought.)The golden mean between the two: Ideally we would all love to find the perfect balance between the two.But none of us do.We all sway to one side or another whether we want to or not.In fact, we don't really no where to draw the line of where the golden mean should be in the first place.We just use our instincts and practice both on the spot; Accepting what we like, and turning away from what we don't like.I would love to have a perfect balance of both skepticism and open-mindedness, but I find myself doubting more than I appeal to.However the interesting about skepticism is, you keep doubting so you will be open to new ideas later on.Do you think one of these is more important to the other?Where do you think your balance lies?(If you have a balance) |
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