Thank you Aaron.
On Nov 3, 9:52 pm, Aaron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm still thinking about Jeffery Lowder's essay. I looked at his
> logic in the last thread and found it convincing. A freethinker can
> (in theory) be a theist as long as he uses the epistemology of
> freethought to arrive at his belief. As Bertrand Russell said, "What
> makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds
> them." The criticisms have (so far) been beside the point or
> addressed in the assumptions of the argument.
>
> So much for logic and theory, but surely there are practical limits to
> what a freethinker can believe, right? Evangelical Christians are not
> freethinkers, as Lowder admits. Mind you, this is *not* because they
> believe in God. It's because they have adopted a different
> epistemology - one that includes faith and subjugation of the mind.
>
> Besides, the arguments for a deity are "played." Any legitimate
> rationale for God would surely have been discovered by now. The only
> appropriate conclusion appears to be non-theism in some form.
> Technically, we should remain open to new evidence, but practically
> such evidence would be regarded with considerable skepticism.
>
> But think of it this way. Freethought (in practice) is pragmatic,
> interactive, skeptical and tentative in its conclusions. Like
> science, it takes human fallibility seriously. It is (practically) a
> foregone conclusion that all of us hold some false beliefs which we
> think are true. The only hope of weeding out (some of) those false
> beliefs is to remain engaged in freethought - admitting we might be
> wrong, interacting with other freethinkers, practicing critical
> thinking, etc.
>
> It is this engagement that makes us freethinkers.
>
> So, yes, as long as the theist is playing the game in good faith, I
> have no problem calling him a freethinker. Anything else would be
> impractical - even a little hypocritical. For me, at least.
>
> http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/features/2000/lowder1.html
>
> Aaron
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