What is Freethought?

An explanation of the philosophical position of Freethought, including positions of Anthony Collins, Abu Bakr Al-Razi, and Ibn Al-Rawandi.

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Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Collier-MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, and more!

[Dayglodaydreams]

You should do one on formal arguments for and against a Universalist Theology or Philosophy of Religion.

[Asankeket]

Even individuals and groups that promote religions and other ideologies that make claims about the world use reason against those revelations and prophecies they do not agree with, so the answer to the final question in this video is clearly 'yes'. The more pertinent question would be why they claim that their own revelations should not be subject to such critique. From the fact that almost all revelations must be wrong (since they contradict each other) we derive the heuristic principle that no one has exclusive access to truth, and I see no way to reject that principle in a way that agrees with human experience.

[Dayglodaydreams]

Isn't East Asian and African philosophy a bit more communitarian or even Conservative in the case of Kun Fu Tzu (the non latinized name of Confucius), or Han Fe Tsi (the legalist social philosopher), and also there is the concept of Unbuntu "I am, because you are. I exist because you exist". It's like...interbeing...

[Dayglodaydreams]

Granted. I'm pretty sure Skepticism is the right attitude regarding knowing of the ultimate truth (or that which we can know), and either atheism or agnosticism as correct with regards to supernaturalism "the divine" "the spirit/soul" or "God" or "Goddess" (though I could potentially change). When I hear about how the Iranian government treats Sufis ("harassing" them) or Zoroastrians (who originated from Ancient Persia, modern Iran) or how the Pakistani Government treats Sikhs (who live in Punjab primarily, which overlaps in India and Pakistan), I just shake my head. At the same time, the Iraq war was a disaster (no Weapons of Mass Destruction, and we could not turn them into Western Liberals).

[Pfhorrest]

What do you think about the idea of defining religion as a concept as the negation of freethought? I first learned of the term "freethought" when I went looking for an antonym for "religion" in the sense that makes the most sense in my analysis, as a social institution of education (inasmuch as the business of a religion is to teach people supposed truths) that makes appeals to dogma, authority, tradition, etc… basically, that puts forth any claims as beyond question, beyond reason, just to be accepted by fiat, because someone said so.

In that sense of the term "religion", one could be an irreligious theist, and I would say that natural theology is categorically not religious, or at least aims to be so (whether or not it succeeds at that). If there were truly good reasons to believe that a god or gods existed, it would not be a religious belief to think they did on the basis of those reasons.

However I always get lots of push back from theists and religious people whenever I float this as a definition of religion, and because I don't really care about particular words but just having some clear word with which to label each concept, I always ask them (and never get an answer): what then *should* be the label for the antonym of freethought, if "religion" doesn't fit that bill?

Do you have any suggestions?

[Jooonathan]

Nice to learn something about yourself through a video! I believed in God as hard as I can, but I wanted to prove his existence through reason and I learned to do the opposite, I lost my faith in God and became mortified of death. I started looking for an answer, then I got a couple of remarkable psychoses and I found my own philosophy, Creatorism. The idea is that when you die, you get to design your next life in your own universe, and I gave that to everyone. So be prepared to create your own universe!

What would you change in this world, considering what would happen if you do so? Or are you happy with the world as it is? Just be S.M.A.R.T., because for example becoming more wealthy could mean anything above what you have now!