"I refuse to change my mind"

[Crunchy]

There are many religious people who absolutely refuse to change their mind, some of them even call others who dont believe in their god and who claim to be open to being convinced a god exist closed minded.

So tell me, if I said, as an Atheist, that I refuse to change my mind, am I closed minded? If a religious person who agreed with you said they wouldn't change their mind, are they closed minded? What about religious people who disagree with you, are they closed minded?
The question is more aimed torwards religious people as you can probably tell.

If you think all the others who disagree with you are closed minded then what seperates your case from theirs?
Why in the first place would you refuse to change your mind about anything? That doesnt seem like an effective way to find truth, just clinging on to an answer and refusing to be convinced otherwise regardless of what we discover or see.

But how can you tell who is closed minded and who is not?

Everyone claims to be open minded. Everyone! And yet very few people are willing to change their minds on any subject. (including atheists). 
The problem of being closed minded is a human problem that does not appear to be tied to an ideology but rather to peoples psychological needs such as defending their ego. It’s threatening to admit that you’re wrong so people engage in all sorts of behaviors to avoid this and it leads directly to closed mindedness and behavior such as confirmation bias. It also feels good to “know” that you’re right.
From this story:
http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/id..._backfire/

“In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.”

They call this phenomenon “backfire”. This story is about political partisanship but it applies to all areas of disagreement and shows that closed mindedness is a defense mechanism. 
Since this a problem that can affect humans of every political or philosophical stripe, the question is what to do about it? Well, the first step to solving any problem is admitting there is a problem. So as painful as it might be, you have to realize that it probably affects you as well at some times. I find a good way to avoid this is to play devils advocate against myself. Take your own belief and try (as honestly as you can) to defeat the idea. Be tough on your beliefs. Use google to search for ideas that disconfirm your belief instead of falling into the confirmation bias trap. 
The only person who can change your mind is yourself so don’t be afraid to challenge your own beliefs because arguing the point with someone else very rarely leads anywhere as the research shows.