Believing Irag had weapons of mass destruction. The House of Commons and the Senate were open-minded and look where that lead them. If you are too open-minded you may ignore obvious manipulation and outright lies.

Political affiliation: "I'm a Republican, my family has been Republican all our lives" or "Blue-dog Democrats" on the one end of the spectrum. (Apologies for U.S. examples, I don't get out much.)

On the other end, rejecting participation on the political process. Embracing the futility of democracy in the face of corruption, big interests, etc.

This may not align with your example, but what comes to mind for me is the lack of a reasonable filter and the end of learning on each end.

I'd say that being open-minded means being open to the evidence.

In terms of rejection of religion, draw me a Venn diagram of 'supernatural beings that exist' and 'supernatural beings that are worshipped on Planet Earth'. I'm open to both categories having members. Do they overlap? How about the category 'supernatural beings that maintain a relationship with the beings that worship them' ?

Open minded: recognizing that you don't have all the facts, and being willing to explore them.

Gullible: accepting something without any fact checking.

Two totally different things, that can't go from one state to the other.

It's not that we absolutely reject all religions, it's just that we'd like to see a little evidence in support o at least one of them...

I think the time may be coming for a blog on religion. The Dawkins "straw man fallacy" is to conflate religion with the assertion of patriarchal god(s) and to fail to understand the way in which religious forms reflect historical context.

Stephen:

"It's not that we absolutely reject all religions, it's just that we'd like to see a little evidence in support o at least one of them..."

Stephen, have you read N.T. Wright's book on the Resurrection of Christ?

-Nathan

I once saw a comment on a Christian Bulletin Board that said: "Open your mind dude, there's only one truth".

Everyone believes crazy stuff. That crazy stuff can actually be helpful & useful sometimes. And it can also be really toxic.

N.B. I find it amusing that religious believers get offended why I say their beliefs are non-sensical. They often believe that I will be damned & tormented by a supposedly loving god because of my beliefs - and yet I'm the offensive one.

Dave - What exactly are your beliefs? Do you cleave to regular Catholicism? How do you feel about the Nicene Creed? It's a bit of a personal question but you opened this particular can of worms.