Freethinker (General)

by satyansh , Saturday, December 04, 2010, 07:51 (5102 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

"And perhaps, just perhaps, the trait of not accepting a label will be what makes the previously indiscoverable things discoverable."-I dont think that if you accept a label you are in anyway stopping yourself from discovering any aspects of life.atleast it hasnt stopped me.-"Besides, once you start labeling yourself you find yourself in the untenable position of having to argue for ideas that you might not necessarily agree with just because you are put on the defensive by someone who sees the label and assumes that you believe as the stereotypical member of that group."-"When I first joined here, I said that I had been raised Christian, and believed that a vast majority of the bible is true. I still do and I am not ashamed of it. But immediately there was a round of questioning that basically made me feel as if I were being forced to defend even the aspects of Christianity that I might not agree with simply by virtue of the fact that I was raised Christian and was I investigating how much of the bible was true, and how much was not, trying to find what was and was not historically accurate and all that.-This is in no way meant as offensive to anyone here, so please don't take it that way. I enjoyed the Q&A and learned a lot from it."-Now if you are calling yourself a freethinker isn't that labeling yourself too. my point is that when someone who calls himself a freethinker on the basis that he doesn't want to label himself is totally inaccurate because his basic quest does come from the human need for an identity. so for me freethinkers are also a group of people who are looking for an identity. -For me belonging to certain group or ethnicity certainly does not mean you have to defend or believe every little word or thing that the group believes in. I mean if you read some of my posts I was discussing my own struggle in terms to understanding re incarnation and all the aspects of my own cultural identity. but i dont have any problems with the hindu label. -you can always question everything in life and still remain in the same set up. what i find interesting is that if, and i am actually asking people here because i got confused on the so called freethinkers forums. if the freethinker assumption is based on that, if you question a set of ideas when you are a part of it, it is not possible as it restricts you and hence to be a freethinker you have to renounce all current identities.????-this is what i wanna know. i want to improve my views on that because i got really confused in all freethinker forums. all of them were of the view to accept others thoughts you have renounce your current labels which i tend to disagree.