From: sdw@meaddata.com (Stephen Williams)
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 11:36:50 PDT
To: kkirksey@world.std.com (Ken B Kirksey)
Subject: Re: Intolerance on the list
In-Reply-To: <199404211710.AA09774@world.std.com>
Message-ID: <9404211836.AA18352@jungle.meaddata.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> >  I also agree with Russell.  Although the organization for which you work
> >  may be unnerving to some, they should be willing to give you a shot at
> >  being an ok kinda guy as a freethinking individual.
>                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> <Stuff deleted>
> 
> >   Keep asking your questions and thinking freely!
> >                       Jim                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> 
> I fully encourage people to think freely, but I absolutely refuse to 
> encourage people to become "Free Thinkers".  I've found that so-called
> "Free Thinkers" reveal themselves to be, through their ideas and literature,
> to be nothing more than narrow-minded empiricist zealots, hostile beyond
> reason to religion and anything that cannot be apprehended directly
> by the human senses in general.  IMHO, of course.

What you say is reasonably correct, but you obviously don't agree with
or understand the hostility.  Free Thinkers, which include atheists
(weak, strong, ...), agnostics, church/state separatists, etc., are
sometimes hostile to religion because religion is hostile to them.

It constantly puts down those who don't believe and represents a
'dumbing' force in society, IMHO.

I try to be tolerant of religion, people's beliefs, etc., except when
they cause censorship or other perceived oppression to those I care
about.

And this from a thread on tolerance on the list!!!

The name 'Freethinker', BTW, comes from the fact that religion and
sometimes society wants to tell you what to think, what's real, what
you should be doing, etc.  A consious sentient being should be
deciding those things on its own.

Ack... followups to alt.atheism...

> Ken
> 
> =============================================================================
> Ken Kirksey            kkirksey@world.std.com            Mac Guru & Developer


sdw
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