ENTP Rant

I was adding the following comment to one of my previous posts:

AFTER-THOUGHT: Let's keep in mind that we should ask all of these questions when making a sound decision. When we are balanced, we can adjust the way we perceive information, as well as how we make decisions, according to the situation at hand. Type is not a box. Type is not a box. Type is not a box. MBTI is just a guideline and a starting point to look at ourselves in a more pragmatic way.

Then I suddenly remembered all the criticisms I receive from all sides about the subject of MBTI.

And basically, this is my ENTP rant:

As I was writing (and thinking), I remembered those who rolled their eyes at me. I remembered the ones who didn't give it any more credibility than horoscopes or palm readings. I remembered those who didn't believe that I could make something of this knowledge - what I have learned/am learning. I remembered the one who shoved the profile back at me and announced "I don't need a piece of paper to tell me who I am." It took everything in me to smile and keep my composure. Sometimes us Christians are a funny bunch. We have denial down to a science. Why can't we look at everything that is available to us to help us understand ourselves better? Science is fascinating. Psychology is fascinating. Philosophers are not wasting time. They are thinking...trying to make sense of the world. Some scientists laugh at everything they don't understand, including each other's ideas. The religious people judge everything they don't find written in their books, including each other's religion. Which science is more exact? Which religion is more righteous? Everyone sees what they see differently. Our brains are wired differently. The way we use our brains and the order in which we tap into our functions differ from person to person. We ask many questions to come to a decision, but the order in which we prefer to ask them may be different. And it's NOT about personal preferences. We're looking at the cognitive preferences, not personal preferences. And remember, preference does not equal action. Preference is inborn. Behavior is a choice. And... this is not law or religion. It is a mere theory, but it is derived from 60 years of studying and researching patterns in human behavior. It is an idea, concept, study of the brain... in motion, in progress, evolving, just like everything else that has to do with life. And for the most part, it makes sense. For the most part, it seems to fit. It's not perfect. Nothing is perfect. But that's what we have to work with. It's the best we've got. Carl Jung and thinkers like him literally tried to squeeze every cell out of their brains to better understand human nature. They wanted to pass their understanding onto the future generations...us. Tolstoy drove himself to the brink of suicide in his attempts to find answers to his questions. C.S. Lewis swallowed all of his intellectual pride to put his heart out there for all to see so we can take his gained knowledge... his thoughts, and think on them some more. Thomas Jefferson even tried to rewrite the Bible to make sense of religion...to try (if I had to guess) to somehow find a connection between reality and the mystical. Thoreau, Emerson, Nin, Proust, Paul the Apostle, Darwin, Sagan, Alan Watts, Einstein, and even Dawkins... Who are they? Are they any different than you and me trying our best to understand why we are here and what we are doing? And they all have something valuable to say if you would just be willing to step outside of the walls you've built for yourselves for a moment and listen. If someone disagrees with us, there must be a good reason. Let's look at everything. Let's continue to link together what makes sense and put aside what doesn't make sense. And what doesn't make sense today may come into play at another time in another part of the big jigsaw puzzle of life. I want to work on having the courage to face the picture that you see. I want to be open enough to always ask how does it look from your side? Am I willing to see how you see me? How you see the world? It's scary, yes. But show me anyway. My immediate reaction is to kick and scream, cry and whine. Throw a tantrum. Tell you that you are wrong. Grit my teeth and deny it. But wait, what did you say? hmm... let me see... let me adjust my seat, find a different angle, and look again. Ah yes, I see... I can see what I thought was white is actually blue.... and green, and brown, and yellow, and orange... Amazing what a little light can do to our vision...

End of rant.