How open are you to new ideas.

by poodlehead 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  daystar

  ROFL!!

  Very open to new ideas. No neophobe here! Nope! Not in the least.
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  Crumpet

  I was talking to two Jehovah’s Witnesses recently and I accused them of being narrow minded. They were genuinely shocked and told me that - Jehovah’s Witnesses are the Most Open Minded People On Earth.

  Trevor what a lovely moment to have been able to say - that's interesting "I must have been misinformed - I understood that gay people weren't acceptable within your church."

  Or "Oh I had been led to believe that you considered all other religions to be false and do not even check this by reading their literature?"

  Or "Well thats marvellous - why dont you come inside and I'll skin a big fat dewy up and we can talk about evolution?"
• 

  greendawn

  There are certain ideas that each person can not accept as valid while others fall in an area that can be considered as valid and acceptable as they are or with some modifications.
  
  There can never be openness to all ideas.
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  the dreamer dreaming

  we defend ideas that have an emotional charge in our mind... now the cause of this charge is not always apparent and often misleading as we tend to trust our own mind above any other... but I find the following to keep me honest: perceptions [items of sensory/mental data] are FACTS, beliefs, speculations, theories, etc. about them are NOT, no matter how powerfully we FEEL they are.... this too will cure any religious infection
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  Carmel

  I thought I was for many years after leaving the Borg, but I realized well into my formal education, especially in Psychology and the biological sciences, that I was no different than many. Much of what was drummed into me as a child had to be addressed head on or it would continue to color my thinking about new ideas. Much like food preferences! You have to consciously try new things or you will find youself eating the same selection of items for each meal. How many have had chili for breakfast? Or waffles and chipped beef for dinner? When I lived in Isreal I learnd a whole new set of cullenary options, and also found out how narrow minded others are about their food choices.

  I think I was most influenced by one of my college professors that complimented me on my sceptical attitude when I challenged some of his conclusions in class. I guess that got me to thinking that I should not only be sceptical but also open to realizing that everything that science holds as absolute will some time be up for re-examination. So to are societal constructs, religion's paradigms and absolutes. I was really challenged when I stumbled accross the Baha'i Faith. Boy, did that force me to re-think my cosmology!

  I hope I'm more open to new ideas as I get older and detached from things that I used to hold so dear and near. Some, kind of like gravity, I assume are fairly intact, but then like the old saying goes, "there is no gravity, the earth sucks" may catch me napping!

  Carmel
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  parakeet

  I'm open to hearing new ideas. Whether I accept them or not is another question.
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  Arthur

  I would sure like to think that I am but, I must admit that I am not the most objective person to critique myself. What's so great about this site, is that we are exposed to so many different points of view and beliefs.