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Careful definition of 'closed' required (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps it's better to think carefully about what it means to be closed minded about something, in this case astrology. You can take the position that yes, there is something we and armies of scientists don't know about and astrology is never the less true, or you can take the position that no, there are no grounds to the claims that astrology makes and it is not.
Of course, you then need to ask which of those two positions is closed minded? Is it more open minded to believe something to be true, or to
Re:Careful definition of 'closed' required (Score:2, Interesting)
Example: If you think people who do believe in astrology are morons, then you are probably closed-minded, because you probably haven't really been able to get inside someone's head to know why they believe in astrology. Simply believing it is bunk is fine; chances are that you've been able to weigh it with some semblance of objectivity, and you came to your own conclusion. Sure, that's how these things work, that's fine. But you likely can't say with any significant amount of reason why someone else believes it is valid, so to make judgments about someone else's belief is usually closed-minded.
Similarly, to say someone is closed-minded because they don't share your belief is usually the closed-minded one, because they don't consider what thought processes the other person's actually gone through to arrive at his beliefs.
Basically, closed-mindedness is dismissing something as valid without really having enough facts to do so.
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