To think independently and reject accepted beliefs or doctrines, especially religious or political ones, based on reason rather than authority.
From 'free' (unrestricted, unbound) + 'think' (to use mental faculties). The term crystallized in the 17th-18th centuries during the Enlightenment when philosophers explicitly rejected religious dogma in favor of rational analysis.
Freethinkers were genuinely radical figures in history—people like Voltaire and Thomas Paine who dared to question everything from divine right to church authority at times when doing so could get you executed.
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