Do Not Block the Road of Inquiry

What Peirce means by this is that we ought never to draw a line in the sand and say that theorizing cannot, must not, ever be allowed to go in this or that direction regardless of the evidence. The rationale for the maxim is simple: Rationality requires that we submit our thinking to the truth, as best we can discern it. And since our only access to the truth is the evidence that we have at our disposal, we must never dismiss evidence out of hand simply because it conflicts with one of our pet theories.

One violates this maxim when one plays the ever-popular intellectual “trump card”. For example, while I am a convinced theist of a broadly Christian persuasion, I am routinely dismayed by how many of my co-religionists like to play the trump card. This manifests itself in doctrinal proof-texting, fideism.

• When confronted with evidence or argument to the effect that the Earth is billions of years old, some will simply dismiss it saying “My Bible says otherwise.”
• It is official Mormon teaching that divine revelation (read “religious experience”) can never be overturned by external rational argument.
• Muslims

Any set of doctrines that requires me to turn off my intellect does not merit my allegiance.

and have strong religious