Reply #167: I am entirely for open-mindedness.

[Basileus Basileon]

With that also comes the responsibility to demand a preponderance of evidence before believing in fantastic claims. Failure to do so gives a society "harmless" belief in ghosts and goblins, but also gives you:

1."Teach-the-controversy" Creationist dolts
2."Why are you supporting the terrorists; of course Iraq has WMD."
3. "My baby don't need vaccinations. She healthy already."
4. "Go to the doctor? Eh, they don't know anything."
5. "Increased funding for physics? What's the point?"
6. "I bet those Global Warming kooks don't know what they're talking about. I'd say they're nuts."
7. "Run out of oil? Yeah, sure. I don't see how that could happen."

I mean, when you're saying that people's completely unsupported beliefs in ghosties and flying saucers are worthy of equal consideration, you're chucking the notion that evidence and objective fact are things that matter out the window, and replacing it with a framework in which all subjective experiences are equally truthy, to borrow Stephen Colbert's word. And it's that framework which continuously stands between humanity and progress.

Saying that woo-wooism ought be respected when it surfaces in a benign form is similar to saying that one ought not treat a cancer if a particular metastasis is not causing any apparent problems.