Is it possible to believe in supernatural explanations and still be close-minded? As per this video, absolutely. It’s called rehearsing your own prejudices.
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nice video. it should be a requirement in every school to show this video. they can replace the “ghost story” with “god story”. unfortunately, most teachers are too close-minded to even teach this to kids and their parents.
imagine how much we’ll miss if we are close-minded, a lot!
also, even if some people are open-minded, the interpretation is often filtered by their biases and prejudices. like for example, i’ll be biased towards chinese’s excellence in something and maybe prejudiced against Filipinos. (just and example) so even if you present an argument and I’m open to it, it’s still FILTERED. That’s why, even among the sages and genuises, there are still discrepancies of the “truths”.
Your assessment is correct. It’s very hard to give an opinion that’s completely free of some form of personal bias–I’m not even sure if that’s possible. Perhaps the best course would help to simply identify the bias and separate it from the facts.
i like that guy in the left…does not believe in ghost & god but in science
Nice and informative video. the discussion is not limited to supernaturals, to borrow from intsiksiomai. It can be applied to other fields or topics as well.
The topic of this video is one near and dear to me. One should always question their beliefs about reality. There can be no certainty in life. For example, religiously minded folk should approach their ideologies “as if” they are true, thus leaving the door open to the possibility that their belief is full of shit. If everyone could be so open-minded, we would stop killing each other over humanly constructed symbolic immortality ideologies (e.g., cultural, political, religious beliefs). I will stop there before I rant for hours on this topic.
I like to refer to myself bemusedly as a fundamentalist agnostic. I simply refuse to have 100% absolute faith or certainty in most things. While this may be the most honest way to approach life, it is not without it’s limitations let me tell you.
The comfort of clinging to tightly secure beliefs about the world is what keeps most content to get by in their day to day existences. Read Ernest Becker’s “Denial of Death” to get an idea of where I am going with all this.
Peace
I’d like to get your point of view on something, if I may. You and I are aware of the dangers of rigidly held yet unsubstantiated beliefs. But I wonder, as an agnostic, do you ever feel lost and insecure in a world where nothing seems certain? I’m not preaching here; currently I’m a non-practicing Catholic. I’m just curious.
Would you rather hold on to a belief you absolutely know is false rather than be on limb/uncertainty? I won’t.
I think we’ll never arrive at super absolute truths because its forever evolving, just like technology, medicine, sciences, and the likes. After we arrive at a certain conclusion, we rest and live it, then we move on our journey again, then rest and live it, and then move on again.
You can choose to be insecure or be excited, or both?
I think we long for absolutes as a matter of nature–and learning to live in a world of flux, where “truths” evolve is actually counter intuitive and uncomfortable.
So the choice is: comfort vs. (the possibility of) finding truth.
I think it’s almost impossible NOT to be biased about something…Deep down, we all judge one another.
Then we can at least temper our judgments with sense.
I’m all for judging. But the difference is, critical thinkers are also just as ready to be judged, and more importantly, are open to validate and change their judgements if need be.
Those who judge but refuse to be judged–are the close minded ones.
Now those who refuse to judge, the moral agnostics, well… they don’t contribute to anything.