Today I watched Anderson Cooper on 60 minutes. His report on the rape of females, as young as 3 year old to as old as 70, by the rebels and some civilians in Congo, made me think that man is worse than animals in many respects.

Animals do not rape. Man does.

Any rapist, anywhere, should be castrated or stoned to death.

Always open to changing my mind, based on new or additional information.

Hey DK!

I see that you, too, have jumped on The Train Of Changes.

Recent? As in--since I woke up?

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Say...why ARE women allowed to change their minds, but

if a man chooses to do so, he is called 'wishy-washy'?

A man of principle never changes his mind...yeah, right! Sounds funny to me.

Although...the Masters do advise us in this way:

They say, "Never question decisions you have made in the past."

Turning into a pillar of salt...yes, that would be one dry Monday.

Wise men are allowed to make mistakes.

Jesus was only allowed one.

The Catalyst

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I decided on 7-grain toast, instead of Fruity Pebbles.

I change my mind about every second or so. Why? Because it's a mind.

If it's awareness we're all after then one should ask what you haven't changed your mind about recently. That's the fun stuff to look at.

Last friday on 20/20 there was a pretty good thing about happiness. Some have determined that the two happiest places to live are Denmark and Singapore. One place is an over taxed and worry free nanny state where people ride bikes even though they can afford cars and leave their babies curbside while they enjoy a lunch. The other is a crack down, spit on the side walk and you get 40 lashes controlling, but open, society where government officials are payed in millions to deter bribes (or lobbying).
In both places, people are happy.
Kind of proves my theroy that if we'd just let one side, either side, have the reins for 20 years or so things might be better off.

Interestingly and coincidentally this same question was asked on Slashdot the other day.

Click my name for the answers.

I have started interfacing with the slashdot crowd lately, a very large intelligent group, a good million people read it, home of the slashdot effect, which illustrates the slashdot function or the power of the link collectively directing our attention.

There is a lot of intelligent insightful socratic dialog there.

I don’t have any beliefs so it is hard to change my mind. What does change is various probabilities and possibilities.

Isn't the mind something we create?

Perhaps when we change our minds, in the conventional sense we are simply changing the story.

I keep assessing the probability that the world will slide into chaos, and everyday the real issues are not tended to with a Manhattan project style effort, the probability increases.

Who will speak the words to dissolve the illusions and the fictions that divide and who will help direct the worlds attention to those words?

What will happen to cause people to seek?

Economic Strife?

I guess we are really on a roll another amazing coincidence. That was also The Edge Annual Question of the Year.

I would say that Changing One's Mind is a sign of non-attachment.

"The trick when making a choice is to not respond to the Illusion, but the reality behind it."
~Infinite Play the Movie

I wonder when humanities obsession with beliefs will end?

Click my name for the response from 165 contributors.

This was interesting from RUPERT SHELDRAKE

The skepticism of believers

I used to think of skepticism as a primary intellectual virtue, whose goal was truth. I have changed my mind. I now see it as a weapon.

Creationists opened my eyes. They use the techniques of critical thinking to expose weaknesses in the evidence for natural selection, gaps in the fossil record and problems with evolutionary theory. Is this because they are seeking truth? No. They believe they already know the truth. Skepticism is a weapon to defend their beliefs by attacking their opponents.

Skepticism is also an important weapon in the defence of commercial self-interest. According to David Michaels, who was assistant secretary for environment, safety and health in the US Department of Energy in the 1990s, the strategy used by the tobacco industry to create doubt about inconvenient evidence has now been adopted by corporations making toxic products such as lead, mercury, vinyl chloride, and benzene. When confronted with evidence that their activities are causing harm, the standard response is to hire researchers to muddy the waters, branding findings that go against the industry's interests as "junk science." As Michaels noted, "Their conclusions are almost always the same: the evidence is ambiguous, so regulatory action is unwarranted." Climate change skeptics use similar techniques.

In a penetrating essay called "The Skepticism of Believers", Sir Leslie Stephen, a pioneering agnostic (and the father of Virginia Woolf), argued that skepticism is inevitably partial. "In regard to the great bulk of ordinary beliefs, the so-called skeptics are just as much believers as their opponents." Then as now, those who proclaim themselves skeptics had strong beliefs of their own. As Stephen put it in 1893, " The thinkers generally charged with skepticism are equally charged with an excessive belief in the constancy and certainty of the so-called 'laws of nature'. They assign a natural cause to certain phenomena as confidently as their opponents assign a supernatural cause."

Skepticism has even deeper roots in religion than in science. The Old Testament prophets were withering in their scorn for the rival religions of the Holy Land. Psalm 115 mocks those who make idols of silver and gold: "They have mouths, and speak not: eyes have they, and see not." At the Reformation, the Protestants deployed the full force of biblical scholarship and critical thinking against the veneration of relics, cults of saints and other "superstitions" of the Catholic Church. Atheists take religious skepticism to its ultimate limits; but they are defending another faith, a faith in science.

In practice, the goal of skepticism is not the discovery of truth, but the exposure of other people's errors. It plays a useful role in science, religion, scholarship, and common sense. But we need to remember that it is a weapon serving belief or self-interest; we need to be skeptical of skeptics. The more militant the skeptic, the stronger the belief.

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I guess I have some reading to do so that my mind will continue to evolve based on the input of many minds.

“matter of time” interesting phrase isn’t it?

I think we are seeing a struggle to cling to old belief systems which will collapse so fast that people are going to be grasping for something new.

What will they embrace to replace?

I have never been to an opera, but I was in an Opera once, I didn't have to sing, it was called the Heretic, they said I smiled to much. I got a button for the effort, it said UNSUNG HERO.

Heresy and Skeptics

Skeptics could be called Klingons because the cling to old belief systems.

Finite minds trying to maintain preserve outgrown boundaries. Perhaps they keep us from being able to walk though walls. Which is okay by me? I rather like walls, and the privacy and quietude they provide.

Pure heresy they may call it, especially if it is a threat to the current system of things and the story as told by the status quo. What is Heresy?

A proposition that is, at the same time, a challenge to present understanding, current beliefs and a challenge to power.

"If we keep others believing the world is flat, the fear that they will fall off will keep them from discovering new lands and our sources for spices. We will be able to discover the new lands first and remain dominant in the spice industry. "

Do so called "authoritative" resources like to admit they are wrong? What does it do to their authority?

Is what they taught you about the world around you while in school correct? Is it unbiased ? Or was it just a story from which the tellers benefit?

Activities of science are supported by, and to some extent controlled by, organizations such as scientific societies, agencies of the federal government and (to a lesser but non-negligible extent) by the structuring of universities and corporations into schools, divisions, departments, laboratories, etc.

These organizations in turn need respect from their competitors, approval from their colleagues, support from the public and favorable press from the media and economic support. Any scientist who jeopardizes the good standing of these important scientific organizations may, knowingly or unknowingly, weaken organized science and thereby hurt his fellow scientists. In this way, the issue of true science is converted from one that is purely intellectual to one that has sociological, political and economic consequences. Such issues perceived as heretical may be so because they involve a combination of political and economic ramifications.

If a researcher finds a cure he must find another job which may be difficult and the institution gets no more funding (not in it's best interest).

Why is it that there is so much disagreement between scientists?

Motive, desire for a particular reality or FEAR of a new one?

I forgot to mention I played the executioner in that opera. I wonder if the heretics someday return to hold the other end of the axe.

It is a treasure to watch the rapid evolution of thought.

Richard #8:

You say, "It is a treasure to watch the rapid evolution of thought." Do you also watch the rapid evolution of emotion or do you include that in your word "thought" ?

Trish~~

What would be the qualities of someone whose mind never changed?

They would not be able to learn anything.

They would not be able top adapt their actions and behavior to changing environments.

They would be stuck with the mind they were born with.

The person whose mind never changed would be completely disabled.

So my question is - why is that considered a desirable trait?

Any intelligent person is trying very hard, on a daily basis, to change their mind.

Minds are usually made up of incomplete, or downright wrong ideas that are in constant need of changing, adjusting, or even if the mind's models are closer to reality, they need constant fine-tuning.

If your mind isn't changing, you aren't using it.

Yes, I have patiently waited for my mind to release the thought "this is impossible" and allow for "it might be possible". Why? Because "impossible" is not true.

Dear DK... just 3 days ago, I'd made a huge decision-change of heart, mind and spirit! I forgave my extremely abusive junkie/alchoholic brother; after nearly 3 years of not talking to him. Understand please, my brother is violent, abusive, and evil. Terribly evil. Terribly cruel. He's been in no less than 3 knifing fights since he moved here to our hometown 6 years ago... he held his wife in forced-confinement a few months ago, so it's been a nightmare for me and my family. He threatened to kill my son when he were only 16, 3 years ago! Cops would do nothing, to protect us.

I've realized, I was literally dying inside my spirit; as it takes so much energy to hate, than it does to love.

2nd reason, is my Mom is not well. I am not well. I realize the importance of forgiveness, and setting my family onto a path of healing from my brothers extremely abusive influence on all of us.

May God protect us from him, and offer him peace of mind...

This is a significant mind-change for me; as once I make up my mind about something this serious; I seldom change it...

non-curable illness; more or less allows us the ability and capacity to forgive; when otherwise we would probably not...

I feel a ton lighter... scared of him.. but, my spirit is dancing again, from not living in "his hate" of the world. His first visit to me a few days ago... he showed me his knife! Bile found its way into my throat... he was letting me know... he could/would kill, mame or harm me... I have learned of his evils just the past few days, which has been ongoing... no wonder Mom wishes for death. She is tired of her son's evilness, and blames herself.

I have been so terribly effected. I went from loving, to hating life in general...because of his evil actions, not just on me, but on everyone.

I was disconnected 3 weeks DK, so wish to extend New Year Blessings to you and your fam, from me and mine...

North

Dear DK.. I felt tremendous uplifting when I forgave him. I felt, he no longer controlled my emotions, and my emotions no longer controlled me.

Forgiveness is key to positive changes : )

I am merely one of billions of humans DK; whom live difficult lives because of a family member's addictions and behaviour; my bro was born from a bad seed; for 50 years of his life; it has been our family's burden to bear.

Cry not for me DK; cry for those lost souls like my brother; that no man, nor God; has been able to reach....