Over the course of the past few years, a few people have felt that we weren’t open minded, since we were not open to their opinions and reasoning, but this is far from true, as it is our ability to think critically that causes us to accept or reject their opinions. Not all opinions and reasons are equal, as many are built upon emotional attachments, missing knowledge, and/or fallacious (deceptive) logic that supports a self-deceived agenda. We are open minded to well formed opinions that are founded in asking a myriad of pertinent questions, but we reject reasoning that supports empty talking points, catchy slogans, blind rhetoric, emotional attachments, and those that enable self-deception.
The truly open mind is one that is able to allow information in without judging it, is able to process it with logic, is able to remove any contradictions that may be found between the information and logic, and is able to do so free from any emotional attachments that could cloud their discernment. This process is all done through asking as many questions as necessary, and in the correct order (see the Trivium), so that they might be able to form an opinion and/or course of action that best suits the situation. Close minded people are closed to asking the necessary questions to both know and understand the topic; they can’t even get past taking in any new information, much less process it, since it doesn’t serve their emotional attachments, expectations, and world view.
In short, a closed minded person is somebody that has too many emotional attachments to think critically, and are closed to new information that might contradict their entrenched beliefs, but an open minded person is somebody that is able to think critically free from emotional attachments, and is able to consider and entertain all information without the need to embrace it as true, regardless of its source.
