Thursday, November 26, 2009

Closed Open-mindedness

I have come to a startling realization. First of all, I would like to say that I consider myself to be a fairly open-minded person. I have my moral values which I hold to without question, but I am open to change for the most part. I believe that following something blindly will lead to trouble somewhere down the line. I have realized that I, along with many other so-called open-minded people, tend to be a tad bit closed-minded about our being open-minded. Paradox you say? No, not really. It is more of an oxymoron. You see, we exercise our right to think how we wish to think and others have the same right, but as soon as someone displays being closed-minded, we instantly begin berating them for their narrow view of the world. Is closed-mindedness problematic? It tends to be, though it can protect a person from certain things. Does this give us the right to tell them that they cannot be close minded? Sure, if we wish to be close minded as well. We have every right to think and be the way we wish to be, but the moment we turn around and say that everyone must have that same freedom, we are taking away those very freedoms we cling to. It is human nature after all, I suppose, to want to be right all the time. We all want to be God, even the Christians somewhere deep within their hearts want to be God. That is what makes us choose to sin when we know that it is wrong. The fruit that Adam and Eve ate has poisoned us all. If God is our standard of morality, than he is essentially the essence of good, and evil is the opposite. By choosing wrong, or by believing in ethical relativism, you are basically saying that you are the standard of right and wrong, therefore placing yourself as God in your own mind. By being close minded by trying to force your views on other people, you are declaring yourself the basis of their morality, which is placing yourself in the place of God.