I was amazed and rather left speechless this morning at this conversation:
Person 1 – the Aborigines have been in Australia for over 50,000 years
Person 2 – well that’s impossible as the world has only been in existence for 6000 years
Person 1 – hum well, you know all the evidence shows that isn’t true, and the world in millions of years old
Person 2 – well the bible is the word of god and its says 6000 years, so that’s the truth.
Well like I said, jaw drops open in amazement at this statement. It’s not like there is any possible doubt that the earth is older than 6000 years. There are stacks of evidence for it. So here we have a person who has a total inability to look at facts and weigh them against their current world view. It doesn’t matter what evidence you present, if it doesn’t fit that world view it will be rejected.
But then, don’t we all do that? How are we at changing what we think when faced with other information? Are well willing to be open-minded about our ideas, worldviews or opinion?
When was the last time you had a honest look at what you believe, when did you last take out all your ideas and examine them against new information?
Which isn’t to say we have to change our minds about stuff, we don’t have to have a complete turnaround, but what we should do is honestly and without prejudice look at ourselves and work towards clearing out preconceived ideas and beliefs.
Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi