Practicing What I Teach

As a teacher, I want my students to be open minded. However, I cannot expect this of them if I am not so myself. I claim that, as a skeptic, I am willing to change my mind about even my most cherished beliefs if they do not match the best available evidence.

But when I think about it, do I really change my mind about things that I believe very strongly or which are extremely important to me?

Things I’ve Drastically Changed my Mind About Despite Holding Strong Prior Beliefs Based on Looking at the Actual Evidence and Letting Go of my Wrong Beliefs

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[column size=’1/2′] [/column]

[column size=’1/2′]organic food
Monsanto
nuclear energy
fracking
mathematical Platonism
gun control
alternative medicine
natural products
economics
evolutionary psychology
feminism
spirituality
Postmodernism
religion
accommodationism (and tolerance)
sex and gender
Sherlock Holmes
values (egalitarianism)
expertise (limits and attitudes towards)
local food
what “Truth” means to different people
relativism
ethical egoism
memory
changing minds
open-mindedness
philosophy
logic
home birthing
Republicanism
Democrats
Libertarianism
ethical egoism (philosophy)
SETI
string theory
GMOs
“big pharma”
English
quantum physics
idolatry
blasphemy
offence
teacher-led vs. student-centered teaching[/column]

[/row]

 

Yes, yes I do.

Do you have a list?