Scientists and mathematicians are trained to follow evidence, yes. But that does not automatically make them the free-est thinkers. In fact, their training often pulls in the opposite direction. Most working scientists spend their careers inside an accepted framework, not questioning it. Richard Feynman was rare not because he was smart, but…[Read more]

I like the way you’ve fleshed out a working definition of freethinker. Leave it to Reg to dredge and find gold.

It is something we ought to aspire to achiece but i doubt 1 in 10k are there or approximate freethinker as aforementioned. How much better would our lives be if it were a way of life for the majority?

Praise of faith makes me puke…[Read more]

I consider myself a free thinker, and other people consider me to be a free spirit.  In my experience, the two tend to go together as people take their free-spiritedness into their thinking.  I consider someone who is not a free thinker to be a dumbass, as it’s an intellectual failing not to be.  So, ideologues are behaving like a dumbass.

The fr…[Read more]

A free spirit can be apolitical, impulsive and even intellectually lazy. They can actively advocate for (or against) weed, gay marriage, and abortion. These are positions that are arrived at. How were they reached? Were they inherited from family or from the culture and environment someone grew up in or were they arrived at by not being…[Read more]

Freethinker is a misnomer. No such animal.

If by freethinker you mean one who rejects conventions, norms and ideologies then sure there are those who appear to think independently as opposed to adopting the aformentioned like a child born into a cult or orthodox community and completely brainwashed.

“my mind shouted to me, “That’s a bit lik…[Read more]