Category Archives: Free Thought
On Thinking
Image by Martha★ via Flickr
♦Lane Wallace, writing for The Atlantic, gives us two articles on the process of thinking that deserve further consideration:
In my experience, there are two factors that seem to make the biggest difference as to whether or not two people can have a meaningful and productive discussion from different points of view [...]
not a fact but a fancy
Atheists are often charged with blasphemy, but it is a crime they cannot commit…
When the Atheist examines, denounces, or satirises the gods, he is not dealing with persons but with ideas. He is incapable of insulting God, for he does not admit the existence of any such being….
We attack not a person but a belief, [...]
Filtering reality
A belief in gods as real and existent beings is a preconception which acts as a filter for reality, a parental control for information you encounter.
Before the theist can examine any evidence of a natural origin to the universe or humanity they already have decided that god created all this, that reality is intended to [...]
Open Mindedness Explained
I’ve tried many times to explain the concepts summed up in this video. Predictably, trying to reason with the unreasonable is usually unproductive. Perhaps this video will get through to someone who needs to grasp this situation.
Something to think freely about
P.Z. Myers and Daniel C. Dennett, in The Reality Club over at edge.org (H. Allen Orr for the defense), have penned rebuttals to Orr’s review of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion.You really should click over and read the whole interchange. Myers and Dennett are not at a loss for words, so it’s quite a lengthy [...]
Atheism or Agnosticism
There’s a great deal of confusion when it comes to defining ourselves as either atheists or agnostics. I frequently hear a person say, “Since I can’t honestly say that gods absolutely do not exist, I guess I’m an agnostic.” Yet they’ll readily confess that they have no belief in specific gods like the Christian or [...]
Free Thought of the Day
Rabbi Sherwin Wine:
There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance [...]
Child Abuse-Turning Kids into Political Zombies
Free thinkers envy children with their unbiased perception of the world. Training children to become mental zombies, mouthing responses they don’t understand and can’t possibly have arrived at on their own is tantamount to child abuse. People who force their children to act as though they believe in the parent’s politics or religion are doing [...]
Relativists must use relative logic
What exactly would “relative logic” sound like? And how does my being relative toward ethics and knowledge have a thing to do with logic, which is as formal and structured a tool for understanding as is mathematics. Are atheists going to be accused of using “relative mathematics” now? Are those of us who understand that [...]
“Atheists believe god doesn’t exist” (common theist misconception)
That in which I don’t believe cannot provide the basis for a belief system. If I believe in anything, it’s that which can withstand scrutiny and skepticism. The claim that gods exist and further, that any particular god exists, are extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary evidence. None has been provided.
Faith requires me to look at reality, [...]
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