From personal experience, and from looking at these forums for about 2 months, I can conclude that no religious person is truly "open minded." Any creationist I have ever had a discussion, debate, or argument with keeps going back to the same ignorant claims that I can't answer. And they use a great deal of fallacies. And whenever I prove them wrong they (1) change the argument or (2) think of a unreasonable claim that my proof is wrong. Also, I have seen a great deal of Christians SAY they are open minded, when truly, they are never going to change their religion. Some Christians my say that "you're not open minded you're not gonna change." And the difference is a great majority of atheists were raised by another religion, and found the truth themselves through evidence. People from other religions were either born religious or they needed something to salvage them. God is unreasonable, and illogical because we have no real proof. I think atheists understand this. Now, if there's a mistake I made, I would like to hear it, and Christians, feel free to ramble on about how you're open minded and all atheists are wrong, because God "spoke" to you.
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Nobody was "Born" religious, they were indoctrinated.
On the other hand, when you argue with religious people, they very often project their maladies onto you. They say that you are the one who is closed minded, they say you're the one who is using circular arguments, etc.
This is very common and I think it stems from the fact that they really can't defend their position, but aren't able to release their grip on their faith due to the fear instilled on them from their indoctrination.
I've started to come to the conclusion that religion limits open-mindedness. I was an evangelical Christian for the first 26 years of my life, but since my early teens, I considered myself open-minded. Because I was unafraid to say "I don't know" and I saw first hand what presumption did to people. But like Capt. Bobfm just said - I was indoctrinated. And it's especially bad with evangelicals. If they're anything like me, they may have gone to a Christian school (in my case, a school run by my church) their whole lives. Your beaten over the head with the fear of Hell and the sin of the world everyday, and not just at home and church - but at school too. You pledge not just to the American flag, but also to the Christian flag and to the Bible.
It's hard to be open-minded after that. You come to think of it an irreplaceable sense of self, something that you cannot possibly live without. You fear losing it. And even though I was intelligent, inquisitive, independent, scientific, and philosophical, it took me until after my 26th year to even question the existence of God. And understanding that everything I believed was bullshit was the scariest thing I've ever gone through.
So, no, the religious are not really open-minded. They usually feel like you're attacking their foundation, their sense of self-worth. This makes them afraid to listen.
being open minded is giving the benefit of the doubt.
Theists are brainwashed to treat doubt as a sin, they will never acknowledge that doubt is part of human nature, and we should consider it a good thing.
If religious people will truly open their heart and mind, the world will be a more peaceful place to live...