I think the majority of people on this site, and the world in general, have a problem with being open minded. Most people get an idea of what their beliefs will be during their teens, and hold to that for the rest of their lives.

Whether you are Christian, atheist, buddhist, agnostic, conservative, liberal, communist, capitalist, or anything else like that, chances are you aren't very open minded to other beliefs.

Being open minded leaves you vulnerable, and responding in a hostile fashion is as natural as flinching when someone pretends to hit you. So you really need to force yourself to open up to other beliefs. If your a christian, try opening your mind to an atheist way of thinking. If you are a liberal, try and see the benefits of conservatism. If you are a capitalist, try thinking like a communist for a day.

If we can all train ourselves to be open minded, and fight that hostility reflex, I believe the world will be a better place.

edit*
to quote the dalai lama on this...

"seeing someone else as an enemy always stems from the imagination. And in Buddhist terms, it is considered artificial and fabricated in contrast to what exists naturally, a thought arises, one thinks it is true, one gives it great importance, one builds a plan on that basis and one implements the plan without considering the suffering that one is thereby inflicting on other people."

yeah your right, no need to be an asshole to ppl cause they beleive something diffrnt. learn about what they think, knowledge is a great thing. but if their closed minded assholes, well thats y god made liquid drano blow cars up, with no evidence. woo hoo

I have no problem with other ways of thinking, just dont expect me to change... My goal in life is to try to spread my way of thinking, but if youve heard what i have to say, and still dont believe it, thats you problem and im fine with it.. just because your differnt dosent make you a bad person, sorry if i can across as ignorant in that other thread

A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.
-Chinese Proverb

In other words, arguing with a close-minded person is like arguing with a block of wood; no matter what you say it will always be a block of wood. I, for one, believe close-mindedness is like a disease; that if left unchecked it will always lead to conflict which ultimately leads to pain and suffering. I would even go so far as to say that grouping individual fields of thought into categories is in itself close-minded. Instead we should not concentrate on the individual fields of thought, but the knowledge they contain as a whole. They all contain pieces of the puzzle that is our universe, and if we continue to be close-minded we will never see the entire picture. We must keep an open mind to all that we encounter because once we close our minds we become blind to the truth.

I tend to take Socrates' point of view on this issue. That is, if you think you are right, defend yourself. However, once you have been proven wrong, immediately drop your beliefs and accept the truth.

You need to make sure you don't just start considering the other side after being proved wrong. Some things must be approached with an open mind for the proof to even be presented.

Socrates argued that you can't be completely open-minded. Otherwise, you would have no basis to form conclusions. What you are suggesting would make it impossible to form conclusions, which means that you would learn nothing.

I'm not saying you should never come to a conclusion...

I'm saying that if someone says something like "if you meditate it will relax you" or "if you pray you can feel god's presence" you can't go into a thing like that thinking of nothing but you predetermined conclusion.

basically... you should always be open to the fact that you might be wrong

I agree dude. Everyone needs to understand that this site runs on open ideas, and untold beliefs that might sometimes make you look a tad misled, ignorant, or intelligent. I believe in equality and i see now what this site is becoming. A fucking hierarchy.

I kind of agree with the Socratic theory as well; for example, I consider religion a psychological disorder and I'll make every attempt to break an argument against that point, but if god walked up to me and turned a car to stone I wouldn't push it at all .

Yes, I realize that it would take a complete dickhead to think otherwise, but that was an extreme example. More applicably: I think cloning is moral, and I will defend that, but if I am presented with an objective study detailing the cultural and environmental repercussions of cloning in a negative light, I would probably change my mind.