Freethinker (General)

by dhw, Saturday, December 04, 2010, 12:14 (5102 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Tony (B_M) has found some of his views under attack, and was "forced to defend even the aspects of Christianity that I might not agree with".-I think most of us do this at times, and it can be very instructive because we're forced to look at everything from different sides. Although I'm unable to believe in a Universal Intelligence that either sprang from nothing or has been around for ever, I also find myself emphasizing the astonishing complexity of life when an atheist tries to convince me it's all happened by chance. This means that simultaneously there can't be a designer, but there has to be a designer ... which makes David very concerned at the state of my fence-sitting rump! One of the negative sides of my agnosticism is that I tend to pick holes but am unable to fill the gaps myself. This, I know, has caused offence, and we've lost some valuable contributors because of it. You have said that your own arguments are not meant to be offensive, and I can assure you they aren't. I don't want to seem offensive either, but the purpose of the forum is to discuss viewpoints, and that inevitably means disagreements. -As far as free thinking is concerned, the concept is very similar to that of free will. None of us can escape certain influences that are beyond our control ... even if it's only the culture we were born into. A dictionary definition of a free thinker is: "Somebody who refuses to accept established views or teachings, especially on religion, and forms opinions as a result of independent inquiry" (Encarta). The logical objection to this is that all sorts of people will claim to have formed their opinions as a result of independent inquiry, but once the opinion is formed, how free is their thinking? One might also ask, in view of all the unconscious influences, just how independent any inquiries can be. I don't think we should worry too much about terms like "free thinking". All we can do is keep looking for answers, be open to new information from whatever source, and if we have formed an opinion, be prepared to change it if it no longer holds up to scrutiny.