Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Closed Mind is a Wonderful Thing to Lose (by anon)


After a debate on God’s existence in my Philosophy class today, it became painstakingly apparent that some people just refuse to open their minds. It might be the most frustrating thing to me out of everything in this world that pisses me off, which by the way is a long list. It’s not that I deem some opinions “wrong” and others “right”, it’s just that unless you make an informed and well-rounded opinion, your belief, to me, isn’t valid.

Believing in something for the pure fact that that’s what your parents told you irks me the most. Go out into the world! Question everything! Create your own views! Your views don’t have to change, but at least then you’ll be more knowledgeable and concrete in your beliefs.

This doesn’t apply just to the existence of God, although that is an obvious point, but it applies to life! Experience different lifestyles! Or if you’re uncomfortable experiencing them for yourself, at least learn about them for God’s sake. Being ignorant about a certain topic doesn’t make your belief strong. Being informed and educated and accepting and still holding on to that opinion is what strengthens it.

I do tend to ramble when I’m pissed, so I’m sorry if this isn’t making any sense. My point is PLEASE open your mind. Just because something or someone is different than you doesn’t mean it’s wrong; it’s just that- different. If you’re a republican and someone you meet is a liberal who the fuck cares!? Having a certain opinion doesn’t make you a good or bad person. It won’t send you to heaven or hell and it shouldn’t determine how popular you are.

To summarize my furious ramblings I’ll leave you with this:
1. Don’t believe something just because it’s told to you! Find out yourself.
2. Don’t be so arrogant as to think that your way is the good or right way. Other people can be very different from you and still be very good, intelligent people.

16 comments:

  1. Just so you know your 2nd point contradicts everything you argue for. It's a double edged sword and can be used against your own argument that people should open their minds.

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  2. Your second point contradicts your own argument.

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  3. 1:45, what a dumb response. I guess we should stop saying to people that they should think different, have an open mind, consider alternative perspectives, or exercise their free will since each one of those is a directive of some kind. Be more savvy than that.

    OP, you are way too relativistic. You may think that it doesn't matter whether one is a Republican or a Democrat, a Christian or non-Christian, but not all positions are created the same. Some views are more harmful or irrational than others. I bet you wouldn't say, "If you’re a republican and someone you meet is a Nazi who the fuck cares!?" I WOULD CARE. Having certain opinions CAN make you a bad person, as the Nazi example intends to show. Having racist opinions makes one a racist, and that's not a good thing in my book.

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  4. Whoa whoa whoa 8:40. Yeah I agree 1:45's response was not the most insightful. However, I don't believe that the OP in any way puts equal weight on all perspectives, as you imply. Being open minded does not mean liking and/or approving of every perspective equally, as though they are somehow all worth accepting, liking, or taking up for oneself. Some perspectives will be better than others. What the author here is saying is that we must decide for ourselves which ones are better, using our own critical thinking, which in no way promotes adherence or approval of every perspective that is out there. So, your response is kind of dumb too. Just saying.

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  5. Ok smartypants 12:17. If you're going to rip my "relativism" accusation, you'll need to address the part of the OP's post that I highlight. I was looking at paragraph four, if that wasn't obvious already. A couple of the earlier paragraphs support what you are saying, but my claim is that paragraph four takes a relativistic turn that I definitely resist. So before you call my response dumb, maybe you should be smart and address what I address. "Just saying."

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  6. Ok 4:52 - here's the part of paragraph four I think you're talking about:

    "Having a certain opinion doesn’t make you a good or bad person. It won’t send you to heaven or hell and it shouldn’t determine how popular you are."

    I agree with the poster that having certain opinions or a certain perspective does not make a person "good" or "bad".

    For instance - a Marxist might say that capitalists are evil, while a capitalist might say Marxists are evil. Which person is right, the Marxist or the capitalist? I say neither. However, when it comes to the Marxist perspective versus the capitalist perspective, it takes a deep understanding and a critical analysis of both to really decide which is better, and the OP is just saying, we shouldn't value people as being good or bad based on their perspectives. We can only value perspectives themselves based on our own critical assessments. I mean, in the case of the Nazi's, I think we can all agree that the Nazi perspective was pretty darn bad, but I wouldn't say that Nazi's were necessarily bad people. Heidegger had a great philosophy, but he was a Nazi - does that make him a bad person? If anything, it's what the Nazi's actually DID that makes them bad people, not what the Nazi's believed.

    If the OP said, "every perspective should be valued the same" then I'd have a problem. But the OP is really saying that people, regardless of their perspectives, should be valued the same. And I agree with that. And that's my opinion. You can say it's a bad opinion, but don't tell me I'm a bad person for having it.

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  7. 9:48, if you believed that rape was fine, I would think that that opinion was bad and that you were a bad person for thinking such a thing. If you belong to the KKK and believe what they believe, I would think that your beliefs are bad and that you are a bad person. If you believed the earth was flat, I would think that your opinion is flawed, but that would have no bearing on my beliefs about your person. If you believed that the banks should be completely deregulated, I would think that is a bad opinion, but I would think nothing ill of your person.

    My point is that not all beliefs hold the same weight. Believing that rape or lynchings are good crosses a deep moral line, and crossing that line means that one is immoral (i.e., a bad person). Believing that banks should be deregulated does not cross that moral line in my book.

    Thus, if you told me you believed that Jews should be exterminated, then I would call you a bad person. If that is what Heidegger believed, he was immoral, thus bad. Note that not all Nazis believed that the Jews should be killed. Many Nazis didn't know what was really going on.

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  8. Well you can take your "deep moral line" and shove it right back where it came from. It won't serve you well here on this blog.
    Moral truths are in themselves all relative to one's society in the first place.
    I don't even want to say anymore because you've just unleashed the dumbest thing in the world as some kind of justification for a stupid argument to begin with.

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  9. Really? Saying that, "Believing that rape or lynchings are good crosses a deep moral line, and crossing that line means that one is immoral," pisses you off? I think you need your head checked. Who do you know would agree with you?

    Your relativism argument kind of sucks too since we are in the same society. So if moral truths are relative to one's society, well then I guess we can talk about moral truths within OUR society. Now let me think, what kind of moral truths should we be able to agree on?????? Oh yeah, like rape and lynchings are wrong. Basically, your relativism doesn't work here. The dumbest thing in the world is not recognizing how your own argument affects your own position.

    Face it. You're just pulling out the relativism thing because you don't want to admit that I'm right. Your bigger problem is that if you say that I'm wrong, then you are implicitly saying that rape and lynchings can be right. And as far as my book goes, that's immoral according to our moral standards. Don't try to be clever to the extent that you violate clear, moral thinking. But you shouldn't say anymore because I bet you just dig yourself into a bigger hole.

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    1. Open your mind, young grasshopper.

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    2. It doesn't piss me off, it just is a dumb argument for you to make in the first place, so what is more aggravating, if you could call it "aggravating" at all, is that you use a concept that is made up to justify your standpoint that having some opinions makes people good or bad, regardless of whether or not they act on those opinions, AND regardless of their place in space and time (which has more to do with the placement of a "deep moral line" than I think you understand). If this is not your standpoint, then you must be a relativist. And you know, this whole argument was poorly founded in the first place because you accused the OP of being "too relativistic" because he/she said that having certain opinions don't make people good or bad. Which is NOT problematic! Especially when you bring in the fact that we're all from the same society and we all supposedly have the same morals or whatever, in which case, you would have no reason to criticize the OP in the first place, because it's my guess that the OP would not possibly condone rape, lynching, and what have you. And your concept of "clear, moral thinking" is just made up, period. Some people think it's clear moral thinking to never lie, steal, or murder, and people who believe doing those things could be "good" or "right" are just "bad" or "evil", even though I can think of several situations in which it would probably be good to lie, steal, or murder.

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  10. God loves you too! Jesus has prepared many rooms for us in our fathers house. If it was no so why would Jesus have told us. You must repent before you burn.

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  11. Whitney Houston was very religious and now she is with God.

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  12. hahahahahaha.... oh people.... so interesting.

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  13. I think some people love playing the part of the whacky Christian. Maybe their jealous or something...

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