On the term "freethought"...let's clear this up

There is a reason why the word "freethought" comes up as a misspelled word in every spell check. It is because the words in the dictionary sense are not fused together. Taking the word "freethinking" in a literal term instead of realizing that freethought (merged) for the purpose of FFFF has to do with questioning truth-claims (including questioning things that are considered sacred to individuals).

It is a common mistake when first introduced to the word. Many people have never heard the term "freethought" before and initially take the word, break it down and take it literally. "Well if I am a free-thinker, I am free to think whatever I want."...Of course we can think anything we want. (we just can't always say what we are thinking-another topic) What those people have not yet learned is that there is a "movement", if you will, of people who have coined the word "freethinker" in their own terms. The range of ideas of a "freethinker", in this sense, includes anything from investigating acupuncture, to questioning the existence of Zeus.

Freethought encompasses a broad range of individual ideas. There is a long list on the Home page of the FFFF Website of freethought film topic examples. Deists are freethinkers, Quakers are freethinkers, Skeptics are freethinkers, religious humanists are freethinkers, agnostics are freethinkers...the list goes on...The FFFF's mission is to "promote critical thinking, reason and freedom of inquiry through the medium of film".

Those who do not understand the term "freethought" after reading this blog or additional research about freethinkers; and still cannot get past the fact that freethought (in the actual, not literal sense of the word), includes the critical examination of something that may be sacred to her or him; then the mission of the Freethought Film Festival Foundation might not be something that individual feels he or she can support...it's all good.

Andrea Steele
Chairperson/Executive Director
Freethought Film Festival Foundation
andrea.steele@freethoughtfilmfest.org
http://www.freethoughtfilmfest.org