On Open Mindedness

A strange thing struck me the other day while talking with a friend. She had said that she thought that perhaps I had become more closed minded since my conversion, or that my beliefs were closed minded within themselves. This struck me as odd. I suppose it was because I felt that I had been closed minded to the possibility of Christ being God, and then my mind had been opened to this reality upon my acceptance of Him. Prior to my state of conversion and acceptance of faith, I had been under the impression that religion in general, though attempting to find God as God is, failed miserably and so I was closed to the idea of any explanation other than pure mystical experience being able to pinpoint God as God.

Really, what this discussion is about is the concept of 'Open Mindedness'. I thought long and hard about this idea. What does it mean? And to what extent? Is there an extent? The problem that arises, in my opinion, is that this statement is broad and many times hides motive. Let’s take a walk and talk, shall we?

You see, the relative term of open mindedness is very broad, and very general. In the terms of what my discussion with my friend was about, it had to do with my choosing who to date. My personal choice had been to date someone of my own faith. She, disapproving of my decision, made the broad and general statement of saying that she believed I was more open minded than to decide to live like that. Mind you, many faiths other than Christianity will tell you this is ideal, dating within one's own faith, and I am not one to say that happiness can only be found in two people of the same religion dating or marrying. I think it more or less has to do with where their hearts are at and where they are headed. I arrived at my decision because I felt that, because of my relationship with Christ and my faith being as important as it was and is, I wanted someone who shared this same passion and love. Are there other women I could get along with outside of the church and see on a romantic level? Probably yes, but eventually things would arise that we would see differently, past the 'no you're cuter, no you're cuter...no YOU'RE cuter,' to where if I would have a strong passion and desire to follow a calling in ministry or service to other people in the name of God, my significant other would be lost as to my motivations because they would be, possibly at best, mythical to her.

The idea of ‘closed’ versus ‘open’ mindedness is this: we all close and open ourselves up to things, and many times these buzz words, ‘open mindedness’, are linked with a higher intellectual level of understanding and acceptance. I think, however, that in any case, the point could be argued into an amoral infinity and deluded so greatly that at no point would anything be of a solid ethic or principal or reality. Example being, I am a Christian; does this mean I believe in the understanding of God, the trinity and the hope of the church? Well, yes. Does this make me closed minded? In a sense, yes. To be open minded would be to say, why Christ? Why are you not open to maybe Christ not being God. Well, okay, let’s go with this: perhaps, then, that allows me to be open to Judaism or Islam, but then why be closed to the idea of Christ as God? Well, now I'm back to Christianity. What then if I ask, why be close minded to there being more than one God? Well, then we find ourselves in a polytheistic system of beliefs, perhaps Hinduism, but why then not be open minded to the idea of one God? Well, now we are back to monotheism and the closed or open attitude about Christ. Well wait now, what if there is no God, and there is no Is? Perhaps it is all zero and Zen/Chan Buddhism is the correct flow, but what if it is closed to believe that an individual man or woman alone can find his way out of samsara, and one should be open to the idea that the world is too corrupt and it is only by chanting the name of the Lotus Sutra or the name of the Amida Buddha that one can be brought to the heavenly western lands? Of course, why then not be open to the idea that there is a God? And once again we find ourselves back into a place of complete and utter purgatory of faith. But let’s throw that all out. Why even say anything of God or religion or of the supernatural or ethereal? Atheism perhaps, the true intellectual-the humanist, a freeing form of thought where any action is acceptable really, a firm stand on nihilism, the completely amoral universe. Anything would be open, yes? No, not the concept of religion or God or gods. In fact, the idea would be perfectly closed to the concept of religion or God or gods. So, in fact, we find that even complete free action offers a statement of false open mindedness.

Just religion you say? Things would be different if we discussed something else? All right, let’s have at it. I can tell you that no woman I have ever dated has been open to the idea of me dating someone else as well. This would define them as being rather closed minded, for who is to say that you can only romantically love one person? It seems a cultural norm to only see one person at a time, or, at the least, it is frowned upon, if not by the people who you are dating, by society as a whole, to seriously see more than one person at a time. I'm fairly certain that is why there are so many scandals on those magazines I always see in the checkout line at the store or so much gossip in classrooms and offices. So, therefore, much of society is closed to the idea of polygamy or polygyny. Are there people open to this? Well yes, but they may also be closed to the idea of thinking that one person could make them happy. Really, why stop there? Should a person be closed to thinking they could have a relationship with their dog or hamster? I would say a large population would find this grotesque, as do I, but by saying so, we find ourselves saying we are not opened minded to that possibility. What about our usual omnivore neighbor? Why not be vegetarian or vegan? It protests and lessens (possibly/hopefully) the suffering of animals, since most kosher practices are small if not completely few. We should be open to the idea of other animals’ pain and be sympathetic to it. But why be closed minded to the natural order, the prey and the predator, something that has been true since one fish could eat a smaller fish, and even farther back? Who are we to be so closed to the natural order of things? I think, perhaps, I've made my point, and then some.

I believe that when the term ‘open minded’ comes into play, the real question that has to be asked by the receiver is, “Can you unpack that statement?” Any real analysis of what the explanation is would probably be self motivated, i.e. being, “Why are you closed to MY way of thinking?” I don't think their intention is to go to the realistic ends which we've discussed; it more or less is an intellectual gambit to compel a person to try and see their side of the issue by leveraging the idea of ignorance against them. The fault in asking why someone is not open minded is assuming that you are open minded, when, as we have seen, no one can be. It is impossible; there is no logical way to be completely open to everything. Are there people who are more closed than others? Yes, I think that is a fair statement, example being, perhaps, the religious pluralist, vs. the inclusivist, vs. the exclusivist. I feel that it is less important to ask why a person is not open to X, but why they are closed to X. It seems that, with a rational and logical explanation, a closed answer is perfectly acceptable, example being above on my ideal relationship. I don't believe that, with a rational explanation, something is closed out of ignorance, but perhaps is closed out of necessity, desire or safety. A process of being 'open' to something should be thoroughly thought through, weighed out and examined, and then eventually decided on. For example being an alcoholic: why should he be closed to the idea of drinking? Well, because he is an alcoholic. Why should he be closed to the idea that maybe next time he won't be? Because every time before, he was still an alcoholic, and so is closed to the idea of ever being able to drink again.

So, am I closed minded about things? To a realistic extent, of course. Am I more open minded than other people of my faith? Perhaps, I've never taken a survey. Are some more closed than me? Yes, that I happen to know, at least in a few if not more cases. Does the definition of faith in any religion make one more closed or open? I believe so, it’s a logical assumption. However, more importantly, it is necessary to realize that faith alone, whether Christian, Hindu, Islamic or Sikh does not corner the market on close mindedness. The agnostic, atheist and even nihilist are just as open and closed as our friends of faith.

Really, in the end, it always comes back to the translation from "Why aren't you more open minded?" to "Why aren't you open to the way I think things should be?" 'Open mindedness' is nothing more than a couple of buzz words that imply the receiver’s ignorance without cause, without trying to understand the reason for their decision. However, is it good to be open to a new idea? I think so, if a person finds no moral or ethical fault with it, and if it does nothing to hurt someone else, but I believe that to be completely open without taking the time to decide these factors in itself is actual ignorance; otherwise, we might as well go to the pet store and buy a hamster as our date for our friend's wedding to his labradoodle.