Marylynn Schmidt wrote: > Wow .. sorry folks, I started deleting those "testimonies" posts because no > one will ever convince a closed mind and I personally never much cared for > spitting into the wind.
Sorry folks, but this one hit my radar pretty hard, and I felt compelled to speak like I so rarely do. The "closed mind" statement runs both ways, and hits almost every ideology out there, from die-hard religious fundamentalists to mystics to politicians and "weed-smoking hippies." I have been following the "Testimonials" track with some level of interest; while I consider myself a man of science, things that we can't yet explain intrigue me too. And, I'm sorry to say, I've seen intense close-mindedness on both sides. On the one side we have Bob Allen, who seems in my mind to be making a perfectly reasonable claim: he just wants to see some numbers, some "real evidence" to convince him that herbs are only efficacious as herbs, and not as their constituent compounds. On the other side we have his opponents, among them Joe Street, Terry Dyck, Mike Dupree and D. Mindock, to name a few off the top of my head. These people seem to be, to the best of my knowledge, claiming that herbs (The topic at hand) are the /only/ things that are truly efficacious as medicinal compounds, and that pharmaceuticals produced by synthetic processes just don't hack it. Both sides are very strong in their position, and to be honest I don't see either one of them "opening up" to the other's position. Do any of you who are not involved? I see it too often in the "real world" too; people sling "close minded" around to describe anyone who doesn't believe the same thing they do. If you aren't this denomination but you're that one, you're close minded. If you aren't for the totally open distribution of presently illegal drugs, you're closed-minded, or if you're unwilling to consider on the flip side of the coin that some of those drugs are legitimately dangerous, you're close-minded but also a stoner/hippy/whatever the label of the day is. I'm terrible at making points, but I guess I'll try to just out with it. I fear that the term "close minded individual" is coming to mean nothing more than "someone who disagrees with me about something." I guess that makes sense. Peace, -Kurt _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
