I Find It Offensive; How About You

[MilesTailsPrower]

Why are we arguing about being a "free-thinker"? Are we arguing that only atheists are free thinkers? If you use it to describe that you do not believe in god, then just use atheist. If you did the shopping mall test and ran out and yelled " I AM A FREE-THINKER!" most people wouldn't assume right away that you are atheist. But if you ran out and yelled "I'M ATHEIST" people would understand what you are better than saying "Free-Thinker". Since the word free-thinker isn't really renowned for applying that somebody is an atheist, or doesn't believe in god than the term "Free-thinker" doesn't automatically refer to being an atheist. But being a free thinker is holding a is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or any other dogma. But the term "opinions" means a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. When referring to free thinker it doesn't necessarily refer to all opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason; so one could say "what is tomorrow?", and you could reply "Tuesday" because the current day is Monday without any religious dogma influencing your statement because you based it on a fact and knowledge. So anyone can be a free thinker unless they let religion influence their philosophical viewpoint. And if you let your philosophical viewpoints get influenced by religion or any other dogma it is considered Cognitive dissonance. It occurs when a thought or idea conflicts with other thoughts, ideas, or beliefs in our mind. So as I said before, that if you use the term "free-thinker" to describe yourself as an atheist; than don't use it because it implies other material other than just being atheist whilst atheist just means a person who does not believe in the existence of God or gods. If you only used atheist instead of free-thinker, you wouldn't have someone making a post complaining about why he isn't aloud to be a free thinker, just because of religion; mainly because being religious means that you are not "atheist".

Hope that helps.