I would have thought that this kind of forum would not have any conservatives and be dominated by liberals. What a surprise to find so many conservatives.
@Lon Tanner My mother, raised Catholic, always described my dad's father as a "free thinker". I always thought it had to do with religious belief, but never connected the phrase with politics in any way. Can you describe it more? Frank
Gosh...I thought we all were "free thinkers"....I guess the definition of that has changed now days too. I know I'm not going to give up my freedom to think whatever I want to think.
Free Thinkers reject accepted opinions, especially those concerning religious belief. Atheists & Agnostics for example.
A free thinker's forum? Do you mean I can charge? If certain opinions are rejected outright, that doesn't sound like free thinking to me. It sounds like controlled thinking.
Looking further, I see that "freethinking" is simply a more positive way to say "anti-religious." Otherwise, one might get the silly idea that freethinking means that you can think whatever you like. That's not the case. It is, as I had guessed earlier, controlled thinking.
In the case of the forum that the OP refers to, that would be the administrator, I suppose. In the case of freethinking in general, freethinkers are people who are uncomfortable with religious thought. As for controlling thought, we're seeing an experiment in that right now, as our school systems, mainstream media, and major social media are working very hard to ensure that only those thoughts that the freethinkers are comfortable with are permitted.
@Ken Anderson I understand, I think, perhaps only partially. I think I would classify myself as a freethinker, but certainly am not uncomfortable with religious thought; maybe "in disagreement with" would fit more closely. I fully understand that the Institutions are well-programmed to attempt to guide my thoughts, but their efforts surely do not comfort me, rather the opposite. Perhaps I'm a "hater of nearly everything" imposed upon my free will. Frank
Ken I have been a Free Thinker for most of my 84 years and have NEVER been uncomfortable thinking about religion because I just don't think about it. It's not any part of my life. There have been times in the past that I referred to my self as a HUMANIST when asked about my faith.
@Lon Tanner it sounds as if you are on a Skeptics Forum rather than a Free Thinkers Forum. True Free Thinkers do not exclude any ideas or lines of thought. Skeptics question everything and exclude many things, including lines of thought (such as religion) that are believed to be common. Nothing against either one, but skeptics miss out on a lot.
I have considered a free thinker as someone who lives outside of the socially accepted box but doesn’t tear the whole box up whilst getting out of it. The hippies and yippies of the 60’s might be a simple example. The mantra of “I’m okay, you’re okay” wasn’t the norm of the day nor is it today. The music was different, the styles were different but certainly not illegal. Long hair wasn’t socially acceptable but it wasn’t illegal nor was burning bras or living in a commune. Of course there are extremes such as the Timothy Leary mind expansion era and most of that stuff was and still is illegal but, they did whatever they did in the name of peace and “finding themselves” or so it was said. “It’s your thing, do what you wanna do” comes to mind and as I was told some time ago, “as long as it doesn’t draw blood or hurt anyone”. So far as the religious aspects of free thinking, the attitude of “I’m okay, you’re okay” wasn’t indeed part of the social norm because most religion as it is practiced is condemning rather than uplifting. It’s institutionalized and there’s an air of “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”. The newer trend of the hippie revolution wasn’t focused on where or how one worshipped but that one simply worshipped and as an addendum, if a person didn’t worship at all, that’s okay too. It’s your life. Be true bro, be true. Now, maybe my way of defining free thinking isn’t the norm. Maybe I’m so totally out of touch that my own thought processes aren’t accepted either. Maybe Google doesn’t like me any longer, as if it ever did. Maybe I do not care what Google thinks, which, is pretty much in line with my version of free thinking.