Having been brought up in a anti rational culture, many are not taught to value logic thus never to achieve intellectual self sufficiency. To be able to think rationally, logically and to judge independently for yourself.
To just keep an open mind can be very dangerous literally. It is used to keep you confused by sugesting that it is a virtue to plausibility to everything. Obviously not everything can be true. Since some ideas you read about contradict other ideas, how can they all be true? Simple logic. Think rationally and criticaly.. Be concerned with develpoing and active mind, not just an open one. One that treats ideas critically. Seeking to distinguish truth from falsehood. We are inundated with inumerable theories on every subject from religion to philosophy, to politics to the healings arts, to nutrition and bodybuilding science. And because so few in our culture were taught to think rationaly or to judge critically, most of us are left disconcertedly confused when confronted with the necessity of making intellectual choices. 98% of things you read are bullshit if taken literally at face value!
Human intelligence, not instincts, is what makes it possible to understand anything at all! We are the divine spark in the great chain of being. We human beings are the highest of all living species on earth. Why? Not because of some evolutionary instinctual process as some believe. Instincts cannot co exist in a creature who's fundamental defining characteristic is our conceptual, cognitive faculties which can only be used by a volitional choice. Instincts are a form of knowledge hardwired into animals and therefor guides them not volitionally, by choice, but automatically and unerringly. Man is a conceptual being who gains and uses knowledge only by or through an active choice. A process of thought. Or a volitional, cognitive effort. So because thinking cognitively takes effort, many refuse to do it. Apparently reasoning is not to their liking. It is not fun or enjoyable to be confused is it or uncertain? The greatest power a human can posses is the power of certainty. Only achieved when you fully grasp the power of the human intellect. A theory is a set of abstract principles which preports to be either a correct description of some apsect of reality and or a guide to some succesful human interaction.