{"id":3500,"date":"2015-08-09T15:30:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T20:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=3500"},"modified":"2015-09-06T17:34:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-06T22:34:02","slug":"what-is-a-freethinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2015\/08\/09\/what-is-a-freethinker\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a freethinker?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over at Patheos Atheist, Jeff Lowder is plugging an old essay of his promoting a stricter separation of atheism and freethought.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecularOutpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecularOutpost<\/a>: Stupid Atheist Meme #3: Freethinker = Atheist <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/eOjXao09kv\">http:\/\/t.co\/eOjXao09kv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Patheos Nonreligious (@PatheosNonrelig) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PatheosNonrelig\/status\/629763242869526528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 7, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Former Skeptic Ink writer John Loftus is not having\u00a0any of this:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/thetruthatheism\/status\/630100041764462592<\/p>\n<p>This is a just another silly semantic debate, but we&#8217;re bound to have those every now and again. Since it is Sunday afternoon and I&#8217;ve nothing\u00a0else going on, what the hell. May as well weigh in on this.<\/p>\n<p>The term &#8220;freethinker&#8221; has been used by\u00a0unapologetically anti-theistic\u00a0atheists since at least\u00a01881, when <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Freethinker_(journal)\" target=\"_blank\">The Freethinker<\/a> first launched as a print publication. The term <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Freethought\" target=\"_blank\">freethought<\/a>\u00a0has always been far broader than atheism, however, as it requires an epistemic approach which rejects authority, tradition, and dogma in basically all areas of study where truth is on the line, not merely\u00a0the question of whether any gods exist. (And let&#8217;s face it, that really should be one of the easier ones.)<\/p>\n<p>Whereas Lowder argues that freethinker is not synonymous with atheist, Loftus argues that organizations such as Freethought Radio,\u00a0Freethought Blogs, and any given freethought conference\u00a0are not &#8220;stupid&#8221; to organize under the banner of freethought. Please note\u00a0that there is no strict logical contradiction\u00a0here. Both of the following propositions can be true:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Freethinker is a much broader term than atheist, since it describes a methodological approach to various questions besides the one about\u00a0gods. (Jeff&#8217;s argument)<\/li>\n<li>It is not unwise for atheists to organize under the banner of freethought. (John&#8217;s argument)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I&#8217;d go so far as to say they <em>are<\/em> <em>both true<\/em>, myself.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m glad that Freethought Blogs chose that specific name;\u00a0it\u00a0is boldly\u00a0aspirational given their history of rigid orthodoxy on various topics. Incorporating &#8220;freethought&#8221;\u00a0gives them something to shoot for, that is, the rejection of received dogma in favor of logic, reason, and open debate. Similarly, I&#8217;m glad that my local atheist conference bills itself as a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=oklahoma%20freethought%20convention\" target=\"_blank\">freethought convention<\/a>, because that also\u00a0sets a standard worth upholding. So also for the various freethought publications and audio\/visual productions, from 1881 until 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Atheism is a conclusion, one\u00a0which\u00a0may be reached by\u00a0bad reasons or no reason at all.\u00a0Freethought, like skepticism, is an ongoing process of ratiocination. Let us follow that process through, wherever it may lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over at Patheos Atheist, Jeff Lowder is plugging an old essay of his promoting a stricter separation of atheism and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-skepticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}