I am in touch with this thinking too. I would not go as far as maverick or heretic but I fit the other three pretty well. I dont like to have doctrine of any kind shoved down my throat.
Unfortunately, free thinkers tend to be every bit as dogmatic as anyone else, particularly where they have the power to assert their authority, such as in the educational environment. They simply hold to a different set of beliefs, one that is no freer than anyone else's, nor would they allow the freedom to think anything other than what they hold to be true, where they have the power to withhold it. I think I'm more of a freethinking advocate than most of those who would proudly take on the label of freethinker because I truly don't care what you believe, as long as you don't insist on teaching it to my children as fact or forcing me to pretend to believe it. I might not let you vote if I had the power to keep you from it, but you can think whatever you want.
Interesting article about early German freethinkers in Texas. https://ffrf.org/legacy/fttoday/1998/april98/scharf.html
That was a terrific article, @Faye Fox , and thank you for sharing it ! My grandmother came over from Germany and settled in Texas , around the late 1800’s; so even though this article was from an earlier era, there is an excellent chance that my grandmother and grandfather were at least exposed to the Freethinkers from Germany. My grandfather was not German, but was orphaned at an early age, and was raised (along with his baby sister) by a German family; so except by birth, he was raised as a German. An interesting thing is that my grandmother was devoutly religious, and my grandfather was an atheist, which must have been difficult for both of them..... or maybe not, if they believed (as a free-thinker should) that each person should decide for themself what is true and what is not. This picture is my grandfather as a little boy, and his sister, with their adopted parents, the Fuch’s .
@Yvonne Smith Oh my goodness! Here is an article about one of my very distant relatives. Fox is not my real name, but one of many old family names. When census started and Fuch in German sounded like Fox in English, then one branch of that family started spelling it Fox. I know nothing about this distant side except this article that was emailed to me by a distant cousin that connected with me on a genealogy site many years ago. You may notice many of these early German built houses are rock. Some of the German Freethinkers were stonemasons and many later were the founders of today's Free Masons. https://www.dailytrib.com/2017/09/21/historic-horseshoe-bay-fuchs-house-undergo-refurbishment/
If you are doing ancestry on your German side of the family, we need to compare notes. I am not actually related to any of the German Fuchs family (that I have found thus far), because my grandfather was an Anderson who was adopted by the Fuchs family where he grew up. Two of his stepbrothers were pretty well known musicians, Oscar and Orville (I think) Fox/Fuchs; so if those names come up in your history, then we probably have some similar relatives. My grandmother was a Fuhrmann, and came over with her mother and sisters, and then married my grandfather. My mother was born in Gause, Texas in 1905. We are way off-topic, so if we decide to pursue this, we should do it in private messaging, or at least in the ancestry thread.
But how does anyone ever know the truth when it comes to religion? Apparently believers have faith, but no proof.
We simply don't know. It is not logical. It is not provable. Only through faith and hope can one accept or believe in something mostly spoken to or referenced in some version of the Bible.
I don't confuse religion with God. People follow religion because it's easier than studying for themselves. Then they blame God for their religious failure and disappointment. These are what I call the 'Three Wise Men' people. The Bible says absolutely nothing about three wise men. But every Christmas, the story is being told from pulpits all over the world.
@Bess Barber In grade school in Music class, we sang a song about "We three kings of Orient are...." something about "from afar". Then I ask you, were the Three Wise Men and the Three Kings one and the same? IOW, does the Bible mention Three Kings? Frank
It also doesn't say how many kings there were, just that three of them brought gifts. Perhaps the kings that didn't bring gifts weren't considered wise. so the story of the three wise men were born.
@Faye Fox I will try to get this from memory, no "cheating". Spelled as pronounced, I grew up hearing the names from my Mother: Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigan (or Abednigo). She also called them out in the Czech interpretation, Bal-thyee-zar, Mel-ee-char, and Pun-cho-char. I am afraid I'm way too far set askance from this stuff to even begin pretending I know anything about it! Just Wise Men's names I heard as a kid at Christmastime. My Dad never took part in such discussions. He maintained that for each and every Biblically-described miracle there was a logical explanation. For example, the "Parting of the Seas"........Jesus Christ being a very smart and observant man, had deduced that at a certain time of the day, the sea would recede from the shoreline. He "predicted" it as being caused by his will; today it's called the Tide. Frank
Frank, those were three young men that refused to bow before the King's image and were thrown in a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar. They were loyal to their beliefs but I'm not sure I would call them wise. Maybe brave! The Kings at Jesus birth were never named only that three gifts were brought.