An Open Mind

With almost three months of blogging experience under the hood I now feel confident enough to expand the scope of my topics into some more dangerous territories. I am talking about that kind of things that are sometimes called “fringe theories”, and I will generally be using that term. They might also be termed “conspiracy theories”, but most of them do not concern conspiracies. In fact, talking about conspiracies deeply bores me, and I will chose my topics by personal interest alone. I may talk about UFOs, crop circles, Atlantis, pyramids and others, but I would never waste my time with the Bilderbergers. After all I am writing for my amusement (and hopefully, yours as well).

So what I will write about those thing will always have the character of playing around. I am not trying to convert the unconvertable (to whatever position). Still less I plan to preach to the converted. So, dear reader, if you like to read articles where fringe theories are whacked good and proper, because it gives you a warm feeling inside to see the nutjobs slain with flashes of cold, hard “reason”, look somewhere else, because that’s not my intention. You might expect some mocking, because, as I said, I am out for fun, but I am not in any way angry. The only thing that ever makes me angry is people who preach what they don’t believe themselves.

I would describe myself as very open-minded. It is my philosophy and stance as a scientist and as a human being. It means considering different explanations for everything and reserving your judgment a lot. It is a walk on a tightrope for anyone, including scientists, but I feel it somewhat comes easier to me as I, being a mathematician have very high demands on any “proof” before accepting it anyway.

Some years ago I told a physicist I was certain most crop circles were man-made these days. He looked at me as if I was nuts and said, “Most? Not absolutely all of them?” That was an example of a closed-minded scientist. All I can sincerely say is that many are clearly the work of people, and with some others I don’t know. I am willing to debate every theory with you as long as it is at least somewhat consistent and meaningful. Refusing it would be an a priori conclusion and those are dangerous. Once you begin with them you have strayed from the path of real science. It may go unnoticed for a very long time, but somewhere down the road it will explode in your face. On one hand it is simply an unsound position for a scientist which has stymied progress more than once in history as we all know and on the other hand it makes debates with people sceptical of science so much more difficult, because it keeps you from treating other opinions with respect.

So I will act open-minded if you pay me the same respect.

I apologize for the previous sentence. Dear reader, I think you belong into one of three categories: You are a so-called “sceptic”, you are a so-called “believer” or you are somewhere in between. I myself are somewhere in between, but with a difference. I am sorry to say, that I unwittingly place you, dear reader, in the “believer” category (though you probably are not), because I expect attacks (if any) to come from that camp and I am writing this in part to brace myself for any attack that might happen.

What does being closed-minded mean? It means unquestioningly believing what you were told by authoritive figures and never think about it yourself. It means not considering you might be wrong, it means preaching instead of debating.

And my point is that unfortunately so many “believers” in fringe theries are terribly closed-minded. True, they don’t believe what science and governments tell them (and neither should you, without asking the questions).

But they unquestiongly believe everything that Hoagland, Sitchin, Bauval, or Friedman feeds them. They almost treat it as holy scripture. They don’t want to see for themselves. “I don’t have to try it, I know I’m right.”, as someone once said on a website I saw. If someone more level-headed mentions where it might be wrong, or where it demonstrably is, they try to vilify you or shout you down or resort to the more nasty methods of internet thuggery.

So sorry, I won’t debate on that level. Keep it courteous, then I will always be open for your input.

That’s it. Have fun! And don’t forget: “The Templars have something to do with everything.”