Freethought is the view of a freethinker, which is not the exact same thing as an atheist, whatever religious believers may think. A freethinker has been defined by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (references) as such:
- free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists.
- No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.
However, a precise definition is at best difficult, as the word freethought is defined differently by different persons. One may be viewed a freethinker by simply not conforming to an area's dominant religion, while still believing in (some form of) god. In that context, in the predominantly Christian nation of the United States, one may be a freethinker simply by being a Pagan.
The term bright has been recently (at least after July 2003) applied to those of freethinking mentality, who stress a naturalistic as opposed to supernatural worldview. It remains to be seen if this new word will "catch."
External links and references:
The Freedom from Religion Foundation at [[1]].
The Brights at [[2]]
This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing it. If you are knowledgeable about the freethinkers, their history and ideas, please feel free to improve this article.