Some people have the assumption that the Filipino Freethinkers (FF) are a bunch of atheists who bonded together for the purpose of converting others towards atheism. This assumption is wrong on two counts: first, we are not all atheists; second, we do not preach atheism.
A quick visit to our info page yields the following:
Freethought is not the same as atheism. Freethinking is a way of thinking that can lead to different conclusions. Although most freethinkers are nontheistic — atheists, agnostics, deists — many freethinkers still reach religious conclusions. However, theistic freethinkers do tend to have more liberal or progressive religious views than other believers.
Whenever you try to use reason and science to reach your own conclusions, you are freethinking. Freethinking is a process of thinking free from dogma, authority, and tradition. Although these things may influence a freethinker’s conclusions, freethinkers make up their own minds.
To a freethinker, no idea is sacred; the worth of all truth claims is best determined by skepticism, rational inquiry, and scientific testing.
While we publish quite a few essays that argue for the non-existence of God, these articles merely reflect the views of the individual atheist authors and do not necessarily represent the collective position of the Filipino Freethinkers. What these atheistic articles do represent about the FF, however, is the way arguments are built around science and reason and presented in a non-dogmatic, non-adversarial way.
What the FF is basically promoting is reason; we are trying to open the eyes of Filipinos living in this predominantly religious and superstitious country. Why? Because religion has always been a powerful and oppressive force that has crossed the line to supposedly secular politics and medicine and stunted our progress over the centuries by refusing to implement practical solutions to real issues. (As I have said before, religion, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, shares a large part of the blame for overpopulation, poverty, and the spread of STDs because of its stand on contraceptives. And this stand is based on an encyclical called Humanae Vitae on the Regulation of Birth written more than 40 years ago by a pope who is now long dead. Of course the Catholic church has the right – the duty – to preach its doctrine to its members. That’s called freedom of religion. The problem starts when the church meddles with issues affecting the whole country as if all Filipinos were Catholics.)
Another reason why the Filipino Freethinkers are quite active in advocating freethought is that we want to live in a society where we will not be discrimated or prejudiced for our lack of faith in religious dogma, where in a job interview we can honestly say that we’re atheists or agnostics without fear of being passed over in favor of a more religious candidate, and where our lack of religion will not be taken as a lack of moral standards.
Some may think that ‘atheists’ who congregate are weak, in need of a support group because they cannot fend for themselves in a religious world. Well, let them think what they want, but don’t people congregate for many other reasons and interests? Why can’t they congregate for the love of stimulating discussions that do not always have to be about religion?
Freethought is a journey; atheism, agnosticism, deism, and even philosophical theism are just some of the destinations, and none of them has to be final. Won’t the journey be a lot more fun having fellow truth seekers along the way?
an atheist is a truth seeker? is an atheist willing to risk the possibility that he/she will find a transcendent Supreme Being?
a person becomes an atheist or theist in the same way – through an experience.
an experience led a person to conclude that there must be no God
an experience led a person to conclude that there must be God
the title of this site should be Filipino Truth Seeker not Filipino Freethinker
a truth seeker simply wants to know the truth, and does not care if in his quest he is labeled a freethinker or not
a "freethinker" is more concerned with the "freedom" of his thought processes than with seeking truth
unfortunately, for a good many people, anything related to "religion" interferes with "freethinking"
there is no such thing as independent thought. All thought and literally our brain power was created by someone else greater than us. His name is YAHWEH. ANY VIEWS YOU HELD ARE ALL PRODUCTS OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. tHERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER HEAVEN. sEARCH THE SCRIPTURES. i KNOW YOU ARE AFRAID TO DO SO. HAVE YOU READ IT BROTHERS AND SISTERS? i Read it almost eight times from cover to cover. It changed my life now and then. I am saved eternally my dear fellows. Until now you are reasoning if the Bible is truly God's Word or there is God. your presupposition is based on you reason and that is your problem.
So, what you're saying is god never really created free will?
Free will was just a delusion of all believers when in reality, all of those are god's thoughts?
Please, do explain as that is not what I have heard from others.
ideas have consequences brothers and sisters. if you think you are wise enough to know everything. Log on to chacedon foundation.com and learn the biblical elitism of truly godly freethinkers. the battle is against human reason versus the Holy Spirit.
How do you preach atheism? Its not even a religion. No one told me to google my way here. I do not go out and convert others, I let them sort it out for themselves as adults. If someone asks me what my religion is I say am an atheist. Do I advertise this? No. I do not flaunt it. If asked why then I give it a short explanation. If challenged I stand my ground. This usually infuriates the likes of Atty. Macalintal et al.
So let us pray…
.nemA .reve rof dna won
sruoy era yrolg eht dna ,rewop eht ,modgnik eht roF
.live morf su reviled dna
lairt fo emit eht morf su evaS
.su tsniaga nis ohw esoht evigrof ew sa
snis ruo su evigroF
.daerb yliad ruo yadot su eviG
.nevaeh ni sa htrae no
,enod eb lliw ruoy
,emoc modgnik ruoy
,eman ruoy eb dewollah
,nevaeh ni rehtaF ruO
[…] Filipino Freethinkers = Atheist Preachers? […]
cool article =D
freethinking is one way freeing yourself from doctrine and tradition handed down by our religious ancestors.
what's wrong about like-minded folks "congregating", or having a gathering, and having a free exchange of ideas?
*i agree with the comments…. XD
hahaha…. :))
I agree, everyone!
To a large degree, I myself am anti-religion. My personal view is that whether there is a God or not- whatever her characteristics are- it has no bearing in my life and what I can do here and now. I have met a few Atheists who may be considered preachy. But we are all in different stages. Perhaps the ones perceived to be preachers have just woken up from a lifetime of delusion. And can we blame them for wanting to share this with the rest of the world? And aren't we all guilty of preaching, one way or another, when it comes to issues that we feel very strongly about, especially if it's a relatively new discovery?
I like this definition of freethinking: "Freethinking is a process of thinking free from dogma, authority, and tradition." There is much value in rational and independent thought, but I hope it doesn't stop there. Freethinking is also about using our own experiences. It's many years after taking college Philosophy classes that I understood what the teachers meant when they said you have to experience it and dive into it. It's not only about reading books and discussing issues and getting away from "tradition". Right view and right intent should lead to right action (I am not Buddhist by the way, but I seem to be drawn to its principles). Examining one's life, as it turns out for me, doesn't end in intellectualization. In fact, too much intellectualization can be an entertaining distraction that keeps us blocked from doing things that really matter.
I recall Bruce Lee's own insight into what makes a truly good fighter.
He never considered himself a master – he thought of himself as just another student who was always learning something new in the world of martial arts.
The perpetual student – it's a mindset I which I could emulate more.
"He never considered himself a master – he thought of himself as just another student who was always learning something new in the world of martial arts."
But doesn't that mean he's recognizing authority? Freethinking requires recognition of authority, i.e. subjection to known and unquestionable truths.
ok, anyone here who became an atheist after being preached to, raise your hands.
*cricket, cricket*
these things, you can't "preach" people to convert. they have to make that decision for themselves. preaching only results in mutual annoyance because theists and atheists speak two totally different languages… they speak the language of faith, we speak in terms of evidence, any form of debate between the two only results in a lot of rhetoric that just goes round and round and round…
[[ “ Some people have the assumption that the Filipino Freethinkers (FF) are a bunch of atheists who bonded together for the purpose of converting others towards atheism. “]]
This seems to be in response to some Troll attack on the UP Diliman chapter article. Not sure if he was really an atheist as so many theistic stereotypes and ad hominine attacks were used, and FF reduced to atheist preaching, that the Troll might be just some angry (scared) theists.
As the religious sects are the biggest spreader of superstitious woowoo, and the biggest obstacle against curing ills of society (reproductive health bill, overpopulation to name just 2) it is no surprise that theist get the biggest share of contra from FF articles.
As logic and reason paired with critical thinking is often ending up by rejecting also the dominant god of the country, here usually the Christian Trinity or Allah as irrational superstitious bronze age myth, these freethinking mindset is often ending up in an agnostic or atheist worldview.
The same critical thinking by the way is applied from Christians by rejecting the existence of Apollo, Brahma, Shiva, Zeus and the thousands of other gods invented from humans, as irrational superstitious woowoo. So according to other gods Christians are just thousandfold atheist themselves.
Anyway locking yourself into the closet – don’t tell anybody – and leave the political arena, discussion forums, NGO groups, press and media, think tanks etc… all unchallenged to the religious sects, superstitious snake oil salesmen (homeopathic, perpetual motion machines…..), global warming deniers and the like, is not doing any good for society. Sitting quiet in the closet and swallow all ills, is not changing the society for the better, or as the former general secretary (Heiner Geisler) of the ruling German Christian D.U. now Attac member once said : “pacifism has enabled Hitler” : when you leave the political arena unchallenged to the uneducated but extremely loudmouthed mob you might end up in disaster.
I recall this poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller on the matter of political apathy:
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Good points, Roland_F! 🙂 As for the troll, yeah, it was him who gave me the idea for this simple article. Thanks for the inspiration, troll. 😀
"My dear Brothers & Sisters nothing is smiling upon us this day"
"There is no God!"
"Praise Nothing!"
"Amen?!"
No no, you're doing it wrong.
"Praise Dawkins!"
"AMEN"!
Great Post Jong!
Facts and Reason fighting for Airtime is only natural. How else can people get after the truth, objectivity, and empathize with each other if no one will argue, explain, correct, criticize and debate?
Even the Argument that Atheists or Freethinkers are Freethought Preachers have to be debated, stripped down and analyzed for its details and logical consistency.
To expect no Debate or Argument to any worthwhile claim is an overconfident assumption that One's logic is Perfect and Omniscient.
Great topic and Great Post! I hope dissenters would pose a well formulated argument. Most importantly, an opening good move it is to make probing Socratic questions to make certain of the premises then see if the logic is sound… not that I expect to see that ever to happen.
You don't have to preach atheism — though there's nothing wrong with people who want to do this. I myself prefer promoting thinking based on reason, science, and secularism. When you tell someone who subscribes to Christian Science that they should choose medicine over prayer to cure their children, are you preaching atheism? It just so happens that reason and science go against religious thinking that some assume what's being promoted is atheism.
Great post!
I think the reason so many of us lose our religion when we decide to use reason and logic is that along the way, we simply outgrow it.
Freethinking doesn't equal atheism – it just turns out that those who've exercised their reasoning ability to such an extent end up realizing that religion doesn't answer life's questions any more.
open-mindedness? hmmmm.thanks for that word.s'nother philosophical door of insight for me. 🙂
I never heard or saw an Atheist that preaches Atheism. The fact that there's nothing much to preach about it.
Rather, atheists are critics, educators & truth seekers.
Nice article by the way.
I agree with the above premise, however, most freethinkers i know in person, classify themselves as atheist..although, not final..is also a stand for "not believing in a god anymore".
This is just playing with words, semantics, if you please, but the end result is agnosticism or atheism. Otherwise, why question if you are not "really interested' in finding the answers..same as 'faith'- for the hard-core theist, it is an absolute, they will not ask questions anymore.
Freethinking is also another jargon for open-mindedness..which most of us have in common.
Just my 25 cents.
You have a point there, Narsdoktor. That's why I edited the last paragraph a bit, adding "has to be" before "final", as in "none of them has to be final". Thanks for the insight. 🙂
hehe, an "open-minded skeptic" perhaps? isn't that an oxymoron ? 😛
I remember Michael Shermer saying it's good to have an open mind but not too open your brains spill out.
pardon the ignorance of the plebeians.