Free thought. Not being constrained by dogma, be that religious, traditional or general social and political authority. The idea that opinions should only be formed based on scientific evidence and logical principles, and not on blind faith or rules which had been set up and adhered to without question and no longer had any place, if ever they did have. The so-called freethinkers who emerged in the sixteenth century were those who opposed the dogma of the church. This opposition to unflinching paradigms saw an embracing of humanism, human rights, tolerance of others and their viewpoints and would evolve into racial and gender equality.
I had some unformulated, possibly contradictory and yet pressing thoughts when I saw the sticker on the lampost.
Can we ever really have free thought? Can we really form ideas that are not influenced by our cultural milieu, our upbringing, our education, the weight of those that have gone before us? I understand that the free part means that we have been given the green light to do so. To question the validity of opinions, hold them up to the light of logic, make them pass the evidence test. But free is a bold claim, and, if everything has to be looked at askance and made to jump through hoops and tick all the boxes before we will believe it, is that really free? Because what about gut instinct, intuition versus over-thinking? Sometimes we know something, just because we know. Is that whimsical nonsense? Or could there be dogma, free thought and intuition as three different stickers to be stuck on the telegraph pole?
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