Freethinking

Yesterday on Facebook, someone asked this question:

" Isn’t believing in a god freethinking?"

As I so often do, I quickly knee-jerked a response and it went like this:

“Depending on the religion, deciding to believe in a god could be the last free thought one may ever have. But then, it does not matter how anyone defines another's Freethinking habits. If a fanatical religious zealot believes they are doing it freely and without coercion; absolutely does not matter what the heathens around them think. It's the fence sitters who anguish over the idea of "free thinking" that have the most trouble. Atheists and the Faithful are positive they are the freethinkers. Me, well. I'm a fence sitter who hates all organized religion. The notion of God or No God matters little to me. Who cares? Certainly not me. God, if there is one, seems to have no interest in the petty lifestyles of the parasitic Human Race.”

Here I paused, posted my comment and continued further into my day. The freethinking thing would not go away. There was something more here. And being at the least, slightly thick in the head, I had to re-read the comment later to pick up where I left off.

If there is a god, I feel I owe that god nothing. If I owe anyone, it is my fellow humans. I feel my existence is all about being the best human I can be. Anything else is just the Bullshit we spread like frosting on all the different cakes we bake up using recipes that originated somewhere by someone as free thought.

“Isn’t believing in a god freethinking" may seem a simple question with a simple answer. In my mind it is not. Just what does the term “Freethinking” mean, infer, point out, blah, blah blah?  First, I define it as a freedom. 

Jumping off that idea of freedom, I would say the term is kind of useless as it points out the obvious. We are all free to think. The thinking part is a given. Thinking cannot be controlled; not yet at least.  We all exercise that right every day. The problem with restrictions on our thoughts is when we let those thoughts pass from our lips. Depending on one’s location and dependencies, that is where freethinking gets into trouble. It’s about free speech, not freethinking.  

The so-called freethinkers often condemn the religious and/or politically indoctrinated as losers who cannot or will not think for themselves.

It is not the belief in a god that kills freethinking; it’s the indoctrination that all too often is part of the procedural aspects of believing in a god.  Many religions allow and actually encourage people to think for themselves while encouraging use of the tenets of their religion to help guide them through their time on the planet.

Sadly, the religions or certain sects of the many religions who advocate free choice, free thinking, etc. are shouted down and marginalized by the loudmouth in your face fanatical factions. And worst of all, many if not most of the groups who allow their congregations the most freedom of thought do nothing about the loudmouth fanatics. Their silence is seen as enabling behavior by many non-believers. To them, enabling is as bad as the die-hard fanaticism they hate so much.

These unyielding, intolerant tendencies shown by adherents on both sides of the Believe/no Believe in God do nothing to help dialog between the two. Intractability is not an appealing feature in any group’s organization. And frankly I think when both of them are pushing intractable arguments, neither have any credibility.

There are just too many possibilities out there to not hold out the possibility that some off world intelligent force created us. Diito for the inflexibly devout. One of the infinite possibilities is yes, we could be an accident.

For Christ’s Sake, both of you get over yourselves.

Whatever that was, well it’s over now. 

Later Gator ………………

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I spent awhile looking for an appropriate tune for this post. Finally, the last google turned up Steve Martin's, "Atheists don't have no songs". And it seems, from my over the top searching for atheist music of any kind, Steve is correct. Anyway, enjoy.