|
Freethought Writers
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an unorthodox attitude or belief. A freethinker holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation. According to the ''Collins English Dictionary'', a freethinker is "One who is mentally free from the conventional bonds of tradition or dogma, and thinks independently." In some contemporary thought in particular, free thought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems. The cognitive application of free thought is known as "freethinking", and practitioners of free thought are known as "freethinkers". Modern freethinkers consider free thought to be a natural freedom from all negative and illusive thoughts acquired from society. The term first came into use in the 17th century in order to refer to people who inquired into the basis of traditional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pansy - Tombstone Detail Of A Freethinker, Late 19th Century
The garden pansy (''Viola'' × ''wittrockiana'') is a type of polychromatic large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by Hybrid (biology), hybridization from several species in the Section (botany), section ''Melanium'' ("the pansies") of the genus Viola (plant), ''Viola'', particularly ''Viola tricolor, V. tricolor'', a wildflower of Europe and western Asia known as heartsease. It is sometimes known as ''V. tricolor'' var. ''hortensis'', but this scientific name is suspect. While ''V. tricolor'' var. ''hortensis'' Johannes Groenland, Groenland & Karl Theodor Rümpler, Rümpler is a synonym of ''Viola'' × ''wittrockiana'', ''V. tricolor'' var. ''hortensis'' DC. refers to a horticultural variety of wild pansy (''V. tricolor'' without interspecific hybridization) that had been illustrated in ''Flora Danica'' in 1777 before the existence of ''Viola'' × ''wittrockiana''. The chromosome number of ''Viola'' × ''wittrockiana'' is 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scientific Method
The scientific method is an Empirical evidence, empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and medieval world. The scientific method involves careful observation coupled with rigorous skepticism, because Philosophy of science#Observation inseparable from theory, cognitive assumptions can distort the interpretation of the Perception#Process and terminology, observation. Scientific inquiry includes creating a testable hypothesis through inductive reasoning, testing it through experiments and statistical analysis, and adjusting or discarding the hypothesis based on the results. Although procedures vary across Branches of science, fields, the underlying #Process, process is often similar. In more detail: the scientific method involves making conjectures (hypothetical explanations), predicting the logical consequences of hypothesis, then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' is a king or High Priest traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil. In Judaism, ''Ha-mashiach'' (), often referred to as ' (), is a fully human non-deity Jewish leader, physically descended via a human genetic father of an unbroken paternal Davidic line through King David and King Solomon. He will accomplish predetermined things in a future arrival, including the unification of the tribes of Israel, the gathering of all Jews to '' Eretz Israel'', the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the ushering in of a Messianic Age of global universal peace, and the annunciation of the world to come. The Greek translation of Messiah is ''Khristós'' (), anglicized as ''Christ''. It occurs 41 times in the Septuagint and 529 times in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creed
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) which summarizes its core tenets. Many Christian denominations use three creeds: the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed. Some Christian denominations do not use any of those creeds. The term ''creed'' is sometimes extended to comparable concepts in non-Christian theologies. The Islamic concept of '' ʿaqīdah'' (literally "bond, tie") is often rendered as "creed". History The earliest known creed in Christianity, " Jesus is Lord", originated in the writings of Paul the Apostle. One of the most significant and widely used Christian creeds is the Nicene Creed, first formulated in AD 325 at the First Council of Nicaea to affirm the deity of Christ and revised at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381 to affirm the trinity as a whole. The creed was further aff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheism, atheists, agnosticism, agnostics, and nontheism, nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of federal and state government support for faith-based programs, such as chaplains, chaplaincy services. It supports groups such as nonreligious students and clergy who want to leave their faith. History The FFRF was co-founded by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, in 1976 and was incorporated nationally on April 15, 1978, who split with Madalyn Murray O'Hair’s American Atheists, in response to O’Hair’s antisemitism. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supernatural
Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanings since the ancient world, the term "supernatural" emerged in the Middle Ages and did not exist in the ancient world. The supernatural is featured in folklore and religious contexts, but can also feature as an explanation in more secular contexts, as in the cases of superstitions or belief in the paranormal. The term is attributed to non-physical entity, non-physical entities, such as angels, demons, gods and ghost, spirits. It also includes claimed abilities embodied in or provided by such beings, including Magic (supernatural), magic, telekinesis, levitation (paranormal), levitation, precognition and extrasensory perception. The supernatural is hypernymic to religion. Religions are standardized supernaturalist worldviews, or at least m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religion
Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or religious organization, organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendence (religion), transcendental, and spirituality, spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. It is an essentially contested concept. Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine, sacredness, faith,Tillich, P. (1957) ''Dynamics of faith''. Harper Perennial; (p. 1). and a supernatural being or beings. The origin of religious belief is an open question, with possible explanations including awareness of individual death, a sense of community, and dreams. Religions have sacred histories, narratives, and mythologies, preserved in oral traditions, sac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Kingdon Clifford
William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 18453 March 1879) was a British mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his honour. The operations of geometric algebra have the effect of mirroring, rotating, translating, and mapping the geometric objects that are being modelled to new positions. Clifford algebras in general and geometric algebra in particular have been of ever increasing importance to mathematical physics, geometry, and computing. Clifford was the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry. In his philosophical writings he coined the expression ''mind-stuff''. Biography Born in Exeter, William Clifford was educated at Doctor Templeton's Academy on Bedford Circus and showed great promise at school. He went on to King's College London (at age 15) and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected fello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argument From Authority
An argument from authority is a form of argument in which the opinion of an authority figure (or figures) who lacks relevant expertise is used as evidence to support an argument. The argument from authority is an informal fallacy, and obtaining knowledge in this way is fallible. Forms Deductive This argument is a form of genetic fallacy; in which the conclusion about the validity of a statement is justified by appealing to the characteristics of the person who is speaking, such as also in the '' ad hominem'' fallacy. For this argument, Locke coined the term ''argumentum ad verecundiam'' (appeal to shamefacedness/modesty) because it appeals to the fear of humiliation by appearing disrespectful to a particular authority. This qualification as a logical fallacy implies that this argument is invalid when using the deductive method, and therefore it cannot be presented as infallible. In other words, it is logically invalid to prove a claim is true simply because an authority has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sectarianism
Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or Religious violence, religious conflicts between groups. Others conceive of sectarianism as a set of social practices where daily life is organized on the basis of communal norms and rules that individuals strategically use and transcend. This definition highlights the co-constitutive aspect of sectarianism and people's agency, as opposed to understanding sectarianism as being fixed and incompatible communal boundaries. While sectarianism is often labelled as religious or political, the reality of a sectarian situation is usually much more complex. In its most basic form, sectarianism has been defined as, 'the existence, within a locality, of two or more divided and actively competing communal identities, resulting in a strong sense of dualism which unremittingly transcends commonality, and is both culturally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prejudice
Prejudice can be an affect (psychology), affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived In-group and out-group, social group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's perceived personal characteristics, such as political affiliation, sex, gender, gender identity, beliefs, Value (personal and cultural), values, social class, friendship, Ageing, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, sexuality, Race (human classification), race, ethnicity, language, nationality, culture, complexion, beauty, height, body weight, job, occupation, wealth, education, criminality, Fan loyalty, sport-team affiliation, Psychology of music preference, music tastes or other perceived characteristics. The word "prejudice" can also refer to unfounded or pigeonholed beliefs and it may apply to "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence". Gordon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Popular Culture
Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art [cf. pop art] or mass art, sometimes contrasted with fine art) and cultural objects, objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The primary driving forces behind popular culture, especially when speaking of Western world, Western popular cultures, are the mass media, mass appeal, marketing and capitalism; and it is produced by what philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, Theodor Adorno refers to as the "culture industry". Heavily influenced in modern history, modern times by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday life, everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
