How freethinking or self-thinking is beneficial.
Posted on: September 15, 2010 - 3:13am
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How freethinking or self-thinking is beneficial.
I should evaluate the validity of any subject. It seems to me that ability to control how valid any thesis is, belongs to me. Without the self-control in my possession, my responsibility for actions will be coercive. Thus, I will be left with the feeling of having been foolish. Therefore, I must maintain and exert my control over the assessments of inputs to my thoughts through others' explanations. Although convoluted, this is what it means to me to be a freethinker.
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Welcome, cornellnava! Feel free to post an introduction about yourself on the Introductions forum. Hope you enjoy it here.
Being a freethinker is like being free of STDs and wearing protection to keep it that way. I don't want my brain to get infected by nasty dogmas and superstitions, and I also don't want to be responsible for inadvertently spreading bad ideas to other people. That's kinda how I think of it.
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I don't even think you have to label yourself at all.
Good reasoning skills are simple.
1. Don't buy what you hear blindly.
2. If a claim is made, make sure it has prior data to back it up and a good(established model) to plug it into to test it. Have them demonstrate it. See if you can replicate it and falsify it.
3. Hand this over to an independent third party and let them kick the tires.
4. If this independent tester comes up with the same data output then you are on the right track. If they come up with something different, then you need to re-examine everything you have done up to that point in all those steps.
Being open minded requires those rigors. Anything less is flawed and leads one to be closed minded.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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