When a scientist is proved wrong he/she looks over the information to mind out why their idea is wrong and then they form a new idea based on the information they have.

When a religious person is proven wrong they tend to reject the new information by claiming that it is wrong/blasphemy and that their religion must be right because their god says it is.

Science is constantly changing whereas religion is pretty much in the same spot it was a couple thousand of years ago save a few minor adjustments.

Edit: I thought the choice was who did not have an open mind... oopps, wrong side.

I think scientists are usually more open-minded. At least scientists who are dealing with the theories themselves, rather than the applications of those theories...

Part of science is being open to all possibilities, and scientists don't have as many personal reasons to close off other possibilities. I mean, superstitious/religious people often firmly believe that they ARE right. Scientists only believe that they are most likely right. If the evidence changes, any good scientist will be open to the possibility that they were wrong.

That said, lots of scientists are closed-minded, and lots of religious people are open-minded. But as a rule, I think science allows more room for being wrong, in most people's minds.

Religious people are scared to be open minded. They're afraid if they open their minds, even a little, their beliefs will be shattered and they'll learn that they're wrong, or at the very least that there's reason to doubt what they believe.

I pick scientists as being more openminded because religious people aren't that open minded. Most religious people I know, reject science as a whole. Including my own husband who was raised as a Protestant. He won't listen to anything I have to say about anything scientific. Although, I've noticed he's admitting some things I've said, months later, but at the moment I tell him, he'll call it ridicule and won't want to listen (though I make him sometimes, hehe).

Here's my arguments: us that follow science more than religion... it's not that we're really close-minded towards religion, because in fact, we spend lots of our damn lives finding the truth between it all, and that means examining science and religion. We just have the ability to fall back on science instead of religion. Rather religious people, like I said, won't examine both sides of the image, they stick to theirs and call the rest blasphemy. (Doesn't occur to every religious person though. There really are a handful that choose to be religious despite knowing every scientific fact in the world, but they come off "genuine" and not like an annoying robot). So, even though we accept science over religion, we still listen to it all and might even have experienced church and read the bible and blah blah, but we rightfully reject it as a way of life. Personally, I think man-made religions are creepy as hell and that's why I don't like being involved in religious situations.

I am a christian myself, but just because my church doesn't agree with some scientific ideas does not mean that I would be against one or the other....both should have some limits. For example, genetic engineering could be very useful in healing some illnesses, but it should not be used for cloning not because someone believes it is against god, but rather against nature. In other words, use common sense.

For example, I do believe in evolution and the big bang theory, but I also believe that something (G.d) was the force behind the both...Remember, religious books were written by men and translated to so many languages that it tends to loose it accuracy over thousands of years and thousands of translations.