Herein we continue, from the previous segments, considering objections raised by an Atheist from “The Skeptic Arena” who goes by the pseudonym “Neo” with regards to my repository website TrueFreethinker’s “About” page during a June 28, 2014 AD podast. In that which follows, you will find the contents of my About page in italics, his comments underlined and my replies in regular font.
One thing to note is that since I wrote for “Atheism is Dead” and now for “TrueFreethinker” I have had to deal with very many people who write to me to object to these terms. Such was the case above, with “Atheism is Dead,” and will be the case below, for “TrueFreethinker.”
The concept of freethinking is deeply rooted in the Bible itself
Ken, I’m going to have to give you a “time out.” From Dictionary.com – freethinker: “A person who forms opinions on the basis of reason, independent of authority or tradition, especially a person whose religious opinions differ from established belief.” Synonyms: skeptic, agnostic; atheist.
See Ken, it works like this. You don’t get to define words to make them mean what you wish they meant. According to the dictionary, you are as far from being a freethinker as Donald Sterling is, from receiving an NAACP award.
Note that, especially as is detailed below, I was not raised a theist and most certainly did not come to a theist conclusion, Judeo-Christian specifically, due to “authority or tradition” but came to it precisely by forming “opinions on the basis of reason, independent of authority or tradition.” Thus, I qualify. Yet, of course, this was a grammatical definition and there are many others; there are philosophic definitions, scientific definitions, theological definitions, etc.
Now, what is interesting is that those who were raised as Atheists by their parents may not qualify as freethinkers as, in that case, they did not come to Atheism “on the basis of reason” but due to “authority or tradition.” Moreover, if Atheism really is growing as much as Neo would like to think, it may one day be the majority, as is the case in some countries. In that case, Atheists would, moreover, not have opinions that “differ from established belief” as the “established belief” would be Atheism.
Also, while words do have meaning (or else you would not understand this sentence) we do indeed define words to make them mean what we wish they meant over time as this is how language evolves. To “suffer” used to mean to allow and now means to experiencing something unpleasant.
But if Neo wants to go the dictionary route then he needs to prove that God does not exist as per the dictionary definition of “Atheism” that I complied that define it as positively asserting God’s non-existence—see here.
Neo just jumped the gun, or jumped the shark, or got ahead of himself as I define that which I mean by freethinker. Recall that he quoted me to the effect that The concept of freethinking is deeply rooted in the Bible itself. Well, the sentence continued thusly:
as in the Bible, we find firm belief, we find doubt, we find skepticism, we find rebellion, we find every facet of human reactions towards, and against, the divine. Some people label themselves “skeptic” when they really mean “cynic.”
Ken, that’s why I don’t really like the term “skeptic.” One example would be global warming skeptics: they believe the exact opposite of what the actual skeptical community believes. I prefer the term Rationalist.
Well, Neo’s personal preferences are not at issue here but that which I claimed, which continues thusly:
I, for one, became a true and honest skeptic upon finding out that the Teeth Mice, Argentina’s equivalent of the Tooth Fairy, were not real; my parents had told me a quaint story about them leaving money for my teeth.
Ken, you sure set the bar awfully low. You found out that the tooth fairy wasn’t real, so you promoted yourself immediately to full-fledged skeptic. I would call that a good first step. However, your failure to apply that same skepticism to your religious beliefs proves that you never went any further after the trauma of learning the truth about those quarters under your pillow.
Well, they were not quarters, they were pesos. But in any regard, I did not promote myself “immediately to full-fledged skeptic” but rather, trace my skepticism to that event (and another that I mention in my video on this subject—see here, I have also attached it to this article). He seems to think that one cannot be a firm believer in God and also a skeptic but my point is that I am not an absolute skeptic (who is?) nor a cynic (as Neo is, as we shall see) but rather, have a healthy skepticism. Thus, I did not fail to “apply that same skepticism to” my “religious beliefs” but rather, it was that skepticism of the aforementioned New Age Movement, Reiki, I’Ching and most especially Christianity that lead to a reason or rationalism based belief.
In the next segment, we will consider…the Terminator and Matrix mythos.
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