Disclaimer: Ummmm... yeah.  A deep and serious moment, so humor me or disregard this post ;-) 
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Those who are too afraid to think for themselves are the ones who get upset when you point out that their beliefs are incorrect.

Many people would rather be told what to think rather than using their brain.  Thinking is hard work, being spoon-fed information is much easier. 

People buy into what the mainstream is telling them.  It's the truth, it's gospel.  To think otherwise is blasphemy. 

Information that supports any beliefs but the ones that person holds is not only blasphemy, but it's upsetting to them.  They don't want to think or hold possible the idea that what they think could be wrong. 

Therefore they can get downright furious at those who propose ideas that may even possibly upset the apple cart. 

The people that protested the movie Dogma are a good example.  So are the people that burn Harry Potter books.  Why do they do this?  Because these things shake the foundations of their beliefs. 

Dogma proposed that Jesus was black (among very many other ideas that are backed up by research).  So what if he was?  To me this doesn't change anything, who the hell cares what color his skin was or what race he was? 

But to the people that don't question things (a.k.a. sheeple!) this can throw their world into a tizzy.  Partly because if this one thing is wrong, then what about the rest of the stuff the mainstream has sold them on?

For me, and most of my friends, we accept and embrace new ideas.  We are the neophiles.  Computers, the internet, new social networking sites, concepts like quantum physics, etc.

The neophobes reject new things out of hand, or at least listen without question to scientists or politicians who summarily dismiss these things.  "If XYZ said it, it -has- to be true", they declare, and that is that, the book is closed on that subject.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but it's a treatise on neophobes versus neophiles. I also believe that as a race we're evolving, to the point where there are now more neophiles than neophobes. 

At least, I like to think so!  We definitely need to fight ignorance and stupidity if this planet is going to survive.