Does Appearance Count that much?

[boobaa]

If someone does something bad for you, you may not like it and obviously not tolerate it, thats completely fine. But open mindness is that plus you actually start to think what may have caused this bad act, from their perspective, instead of just stupid revenge.

[IndiReloaded]

unless you want to provoke some certain emotion which actually speaks against open mindedness...

Oh yes, this is the whole point of rhetoric & 'spin'. This was an awesome point, Boobaa.

Is it possible, CS, to create a presentation that is perhaps a bit too easy to follow, a tad too slick, thus lulling the audience into agreement? People just hate to be made to think, you know...

[IndiReloaded]

DM, where do you draw the line? Tolerance I can understand. It should only go so far. Islam, for example, is a religion I have extremely little tolerance for. But what about open-mindedness? Surely there isn't a line that needs to be drawn there, right?

Personally, I subscribe to the 'one strike then you're out' method when it comes to ideas & drawing lines.

For example, I was introduced to the idea of homeopathy some time ago. I even tried a couple remedies & got involved in a study. Keeping an open mind & all that.

When I saw for myself that it was based on deliberate misinterpretation of data (which was tenuous to begin with) & studies which had absolutely NO reason to be so poorly conducted, given what we know about how to run a proper study, I decided this particular area was simply bullshit. Or at least no better than placebo. But I did keep a true open mind in making this decision. Now, some might say I wasted my time & thoughts to look into it in the first place (those who know anything about chemistry know that their dilutions beyond Avogadros # means there isn't a single molecule of compound left), but I was curious & wanted to see for myself. I do that sometimes, its an amusement.

That was their 'one strike'. Homeopathy failed my 'reasonable' criteria & rather miserably. Now, in order for me to be convinced about this fakery would require an entirely new branch of physics be discovered & proven. In other words, I'm quite confidently able to call it bullshit, IMO. My line has been drawn and, if asked, there is no way I would waste good public research funds on this quackery.