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Advice for Today

March 1, 2012

ellenrobertsyoung Uncategorized , , , 1 Comment

In working with history, especially the history of ideas, I am often struck by how much has changed: how what was taken as truth turned out to be false, how optimism gave way to pessimism, how what looked like a cure turned out to be a curse.  Now and then, one comes across a statement that holds value.  John Emerson Roberts said this in 1895:

People sometimes ask, with an implied reproach, ‘What do liberals believe?’ as if truth were something that could be minted and stamped and carried about in an ecclesiastic wallet and shown to prove how rich one is. The first step in the higher life of the soul is to give up the hope of having any absolute criterion of truth.

And didn’t he choose a vivid metaphor!

See the Books page for more on John Emerson Roberts, Kansas City’s Freethought Preacher.

What Is Freethought?

February 17, 2012

ellenrobertsyoung Uncategorized , , Leave a comment

Freethought is a historical movement.  It had its greatest influence on society at large in the era of Robert Ingersoll, who died in 1899.  It was primarily an effort to get people to think for themselves instead of accepting the doctrines of conventional churches.  Freethinkers despise any idea which they find to be contrary to reason.

Freethought does not only question specific dogmas.  It is also an approach to issues of life in general.  Here’s my working definition:

Freethought questions every frame or box.  When presented with opposites, it is on the alert for a “third way.”  It is built on the recognition that any answer considered final is likely to gel into dogma.

It’s interesting to ponder how that gelling process is similar to the way metaphors become clichés.

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