I've had in the past few years several conversations with believers. At some point the subject inevitably gets around to the questioning of beliefs and open-mindedness. What really gets to me in these situations is that many people who are believers tell me that they are open-minded and that they have asked "the hard questions." The answers, they assure me, all pointed them to their religion.
Now, on a few occasions, I've had the opportunity to dig into this sort of claim a little deeper. After getting past the surface, it has always become quite clear that "open-minded" inquiry is *not* what was going on. For instance, one man claimed to me that he had been an atheist for a dozen or so years before he "found God." In exploring this claim, it turns out that this "atheist period" was marked exclusively by an avoidance of going to church and not thinking about religion. Period. Later, he started thinking about religion, and only in terms of wishing he was back in church. Atheist, he may have been. Open-minded? I think not.
Another man claimed that he invites questions by his children about religion. That sounds fine - until you find out that the only reference material he uses comes from "Agape Press" and other deeply fundy publishers.
Now, when I was in the last stages of my journey away from being a Christian, I had many questions. Did I go diving into the Bible to find those answers? Did I search the library of apologetics to "help my unbelief"? To tell the truth, I did. However, I didn't stop there. I also found what looked like some good works on the other side of the question. I read all the material I could find on the subject of the existence of God, and I changed what I believed, based on what I found. The most important points of this process were that I had an open mind on the question of whether God exists, and that I gave both sides of the argument as fair a hearing as I could.
Now, it seems to me that this approach was materially different from that which was taken by many of the believers I've talked with. While they claim to have been "open minded" and to have no problems with asking questions, they appear never to have truly explored them. They may as well have said "The Bible says God exists, and that's good enough for me!"
So I have to ask the question to those who go this route. What's the point? Why even bother telling yourself (or anyone else, for that matter) that you're open-minded? If you look into a question while knowing in advance what answer you're going to come up with, that's not being open-minded. You might as well admit the fact and stop trying to pretend that your stance was arrived at or is defended in a reasonable manner.