Examining the Freethought Pathway

Definitions

Whether seen in history or in modern times, freethinkers are humankind’s nonconformers of thought and mind, particularly in the domain of religious beliefs. Freethinkers reach and hold to conclusions based on their own mental reasoning, even though all others around them may think otherwise.

The term "freethought" came into existence in England toward the end of the seventeenth century, and the Oxford Dictionary notes that especially the deistic and other rejecters of Christianity claimed the "freethinker" designation at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The contemporary American conception is represented by the Webster’s definition here.

A freethinker’s inquiring spirit and unorthodox manner of thinking about such matters as "meaning of life" and "ultimate truths" need not call forth any particular conduct on the freethinker’s part. As with religious belief, the degree to which any one person evidences his or her personal tenets in behavior is highly varied.

History records varied responses of freethinking individuals to their society and times. Some freethinkers, skeptical of a dominant view, expressed their doubts openly. Others rejected or attempted to upset specific assertions. Still others cast off what they may have at one time considered a firm foundation of faith in the conventional God or gods held by most of their fellow travelers in time. But of course history is not likely to note those freethinkers who kept their unconventional outlook to themselves and did not make known their nonconforming views by way of "notorious" actions. Far more likely to receive history’s mention are those persons who, when reaching a different conclusion about some question, then pitted their wit and beliefs against preponderant authority and customary convictions.

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One can find many historical examples of men and women who inquired into the claims and tenets of their government or church and, as a result of their queries, grew to challenge prevalent doctrines. It was their questioning or seeking of alternative explanations or similar intellectual activity that led them to reach and hold judgments of their own. Characterizing freethought in its broadest sense, we can locate the freethinkers across time by looking for "people who reach judgments via critical thinking and independent reasoning distinct from or despite preponderant authority and tradition."

Seen in this light, Martin Luther, a key figure in the Protestant Reformation, was in some sense a freethinker. He was certainly an independent or autonomous thinker whose intellectual activity led him into a position of nonconformity. Luther was an educated Catholic monk, profoundly influenced by Christian humanistic thinking, and deeply disturbed by what was then occurring within Roman Catholicism. After much independent thought and judgment, he posted ninety-five propositions on the door of his church in Wittenberg. The statements were designed to reform the church from within. Instead, his actions triggered the church’s condemnation and his own excommunication, and led to the Protestant movement now known as the Reformation.

Today’s freethinkers—coming as they do after the Age of Enlightenment, the development of modern science and the stirring events of the recent century—are likely to maintain that any thesis is open to challenge and can be accepted or rejected on the grounds of reasoning and scientific examination and according to its impact on human welfare and liberty.

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Freethinking does not equate to loose speculation. It is more akin to scientific method. The thinking demands discipline and careful evaluation, along with openness to new information likely to change one’s views.

Neither does freethinking equate to rabble rousing. One may have a number of freethinking friends who would not consider making their views known publicly.

A freethinker does not embrace what has been said in the past simply because it is "old" or "revered." Neither does he or she accept what is said merely because others do so or because authority "endorses" it. Rather, the freethinker uses conjecture based on reason, logic, analysis, and testing to reach his or her understanding. A freethinker may be cognizant and appreciative of the claims of tradition without accepting those claims. Freethought may place its practitioner into a minority stance in a milieu of firmly held religious beliefs. Depending on the existing civil structure, this may prove a precarious position for the individual.

Embracing freethought is not simply separating from the mainstream of belief. Rather, it demands a type of thinking and responding that grants to all their freedom to be different. Freethought reasoning is not accompanied by an appetite for bringing others’ beliefs into conformity with it. A freethinker does not seek to reduce others’ intellectual or social freedoms. Freethinkers represent individual intellectual freedom. It is more in character for a freethinker to permit, or perhaps even seek to enlarge, comparable freedom for others.

Freethinkers do not seek authority to impose their logic and conclusions on society, even while strongly advocating their position. This distinction is a critical one, because how a person use his or her critical thinking and independent reasoning when challenging existing authority and/or social values has important implications for others in society. Adolf Hitler, for example, might display critical thinking and independent reasoning leading from his milieu to Mein Kampf, but he could not be classified a freethinker since it was his intention to limit (actually, to eliminate) individual thought and freedom.

One consequence of a freethinker espousing an independent outlook may be more diversity (less homogeneity of overall viewpoint) within whatever society he or she dwells. On the other hand, history offers examples of freethought reasoning being adopted by and growing to permeate a society.

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We are oftentimes well aware of what some historical freethinker has bestowed on our own heritage. For example, we know that deists such as Thomas Paine, George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were active in the writing and implementation of humanistic concepts expressed through our national constitution, with its strong features that preserve the concept of individual rights. What we may not be cognizant of, however, is the extent to which their nonconforming freethought beliefs related to and resulted in the contributions for which we remember them. The relationship may be substantial, but has remained unreported or ignored, or has been diminished as history has been reinterpreted and presented to succeeding generations.

As the examples in the table on the next page reveal, freethought ideas and actions have been responsible for some great leaps of social progress (Socrates, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, and Paine are available as story lessons in the Different Drummers materials).