Having an open mind

[andrewducker]

If you've ever accused someone of not being open-minded then you should probably watch this...

Thanks to henriksdal and pope_guilty.

Comments

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Screw it, everyone in the world needs to be shown that repeatedly when they are at school...

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Very fine.

Should be narrated by Charlie Brooker, mind.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Open minded = willing to accept that your beliefs are falsifiable?

[andrewducker]

Yup - a willingness to believe that you might be wrong, and to watch out for the proof that you are.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Yup. Sadly, the people that film is aimed at will switch it off in disgust after a few seconds...

[andrewducker]

I viewed it more as a collection of useful comebacks for next time I'm faced with one of them :->

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

That was really good. Going to repost.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Along similar lines, I recommend Tim Minchin's nine-minute beat poem Storm, if you've not already heard it.

[andrewducker]

Fantastic!

[makyo.livejournal.com]

If you liked that, then this (shorter) song is in a similar vein.

[giantbedsprings.livejournal.com]

This is great!

[zz]

the problem i have with this, and some of how science is practised, is the idea that it's alright to reject the possibility of something purely because of a lack of evidence either way. to use database terms, equating NULL with FALSE, rather than just operating from a purely neutral "i don't know (yet)".

re practice, part of it is people having to stick to a particular POV their funding is tied to, or that their hypothesis is attacked rather than the methodology or results, but neither of those things are strictly scientific.

this is also why i don't like militant atheists. their position is just as faith-based as other *theists.

[andrewducker]

We're largely not talking about some philosophical absolute burden of ultimate truth. When pressed, most people would agree that there's the possibility that the flying spaghettic monster did, indeed, create the universe. But on a day-to-day basis, if people are claiming the existence of something and providing no evidence for it then the obvious response is "That's bollocks, that is!", whether that thing be giant robots hidden in caverns on Mars, teacups orbiting Jupiter or sky-fairies.

[zz]

giant robots hidden in caverns on Mars, teacups orbiting Jupiter or sky-fairies

i want all of those to exist!

[andrewducker]

Me too!