[Coda]

Open-mindedness and apathy aren't mutually exclusive.

Being apathetic towards an issue means that you don't have strong feelings either way. This could be because it doesn't matter to you, or it could be because you don't know enough about it to make a judgment call. In either case, it's actually a virtue to not profess support for one side or the other.

Being open-minded about an issue means that you aren't going to reject information just because it disagrees with your preconceived ideas. Radicalism comes from a fanatical belief that refuses to accept dissent -- "clearly," any evidence that disagrees with that belief must somehow be false, with any number of possible rationalizations for why it doesn't count.

Being open-minded isn't incompatible with HAVING a firm opinion, either. Being open-minded is admitting that it's possible that you're wrong and being willing to update your beliefs if the facts disagree with you. That doesn't mean you don't believe that you're right. It means that you believe that the evidence you've seen so far supports your current opinion (because if it didn't, you wouldn't have that opinion).

Naturally, that's harder than it sounds. It can be hard to take a rational position concerning a deeply-held belief. It can be hard to acknowledge the possibility that you're wrong, to acknowledge that some evidence isn't consistent with what you think.

There's nothing wrong with having odd opinions, as long as you can back them up.