Comedian Tim Minchin has a song entitled “If you open your mind too much, your brains will fall out (take my wife)” in which he conveys the point that it’s possible to be so open-minded that you’re believing things that simply don’t make sense. (See the link for a YouTube video of Tim singing that song.)
Recently I read a similar quote:
If you keep your mind sufficiently open, people will throw a lot of rubbish into it.
William Ornton
At first, I thought those seemed rather silly viewpoints. However, the more I think about it, the more I think there could be something to it. I know several very intelligent, open-minded people who seem to have picked up (somewhere along the way) very firm beliefs that just don’t stand up to a logical, scientific examination.
How about you? Do you think it’s possible to be so open-minded that you start believing things that have absolutely no basis in fact? Have you seen examples of this in your own life?
