People who were estranged from their loved ones become reunited and people who felt hopeless find hope. So if you are in treatment or just making your rounds into the rooms of the fellowship, remember to keep an open mind, because even though some of the things you may hear sound insane, they may help to save your life at some point down the road. Remember me Login.
Lost your password? Having an Open Mind in Recovery There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Herbert Spencer. Staff Like this story? Join thousands of other A. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the AA Cleveland District Office.
Related posts. Throughout both sections I will also examine other spurious quotations or outright misquotations encountered along the way as it seems authors who use one misquotation are likely to use others. Most of the variations and uses of the quotation I highlight in this paper are taken from books.
I found most of these books on web pages where the books were reviewed or quoted. Though I have found most of the sources through Internet research, I do believe that they represent a good sample of the variety of uses of the quotation in literature through time. It may appear that I have intentionally sought unusual sources because so many of them deal in bizarre topics.
But these books represent all of the sources I was able to find. Granted, the Internet permits anyone to publish just about any wild or entertaining idea they want. But the Internet is also loaded with academic material, mainstream religious writing, full text of important historical works, etc. Considering such a quotable quotation as this by names like William Paley and Herbert Spencer, we should expect to see the quotation used in a variety of contexts on the Internet.
We do, though most of these contexts take us into some unusual territory. I believe there is a reason for this. These are usually ideas that cannot be proved and in many cases ultimately require faith. Most authors who use the quotation are using it for exactly these reasons. They understand that they are challenging orthodoxy, or just plain asking readers to accept something that will be difficult to believe. The quotation lends itself to this sort of use.
It begs for investigation, or examination. So the sources I have found are from exactly the sort of environments in which we should find the quotation lurking. What may appear to be a liability of the Internet turned out to be a key to tracing the lineage. If we had to rely on mainstream literature, this would not have been possible.
If there is a weakness in my evidence it is that I had to rely on a small sample of sources that use the quotation, especially from the 19 th century.
Nonetheless, I believe this paper gives a good framework for what further research may reveal about this quotation in coming years. The thematic connections between the available sources are not merely conincidental. By the time I printed the final, the portion of Evidences that contains the original quotation started appearing in Google search results. Over the next few years the Internet may continue to produce early sources for this quotation which will help build a more definite lineage.
Will the results of this research render this quotation unusable? It is not rightly attributed to either Paley or Spencer. We also have a growing selection of variations to pick from, none of which can be said to be more valid than the next.
An anonymous attribution without some mention of Paley would be equally flawed. Still, I suspect that this quotation and its attribution to Spencer will find a way to survive what follows. Notes for Introduction. That judgement in this case is in regard to spiritual awakening.
Quite often, many of us will judge religion, or spirituality, or another persons belief system without looking further into the spiritual matter in question. Before disregarding spiritual experiences, investigate them with an open mind.
Always with the open mind, because when we open our minds we understand things from a less judgmental perspective. Contempt prior to investigation blocks us against the bigger picture and keeps us in the dark. What this quote is saying is, this.
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