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Benefits and Difficulties of Freethought

I find that the definition of what a freethinker is can be somewhat misunderstood sometimes. I've even heard a Christian fundamentalist describe himself as a freethinker without batting an eye. As I understand it, Freethinking is about using exclusively reason not faith as the tool we use for understanding the universe and ourselves.
However, many people seem to equate the word Freethinker with "anti-authoritarian" or "not old fashioned".

So my question for you is this. What does a Freethinker look like? What are the unique benefits and difficulties that come from having a worldview based on reason as opposed to faith?

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Permalink Reply by Jared Lardo on July 25, 2009 at 5:44pm

"free thinker" is like "free spirit" or "sky pirate". It doesn't have a clear meaning. It doesn't have an agreed-upon meaning across all people. It means in the sentence in which it was used what the speaker of the sentence meant when they said it.

The only "benefits and difficulties" of "being a free thinker" are the benefits and difficulties of calling oneself a "free thinker". It's as arbitrary a label as blasphemy, sin, or holy, and, if your definition of freethought includes using reason, then be reasonable and stop using this many-meaning'd label, as to some you'll sound as you are and to others you may as well have just told twenty outrageous lies about yourself since what they gathered from what you said isn't what is true.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Mo. on July 26, 2009 at 10:38pm

I tend to agree. To me, "free thinker" can as easily be used to self-describe a New Age delusionist or an anti-authoritarian socio-path. The semantics do not clearly indicate the intended meaning. One should not have to read a best-selling book to have clarity on what the label means. "They" tried to do better when they created the "Brights" label but that hasn't been a big success yet. Perhap "dogma-free-thinker" is closer to what is intended?