r/Freethought

15K archived posts · May 2008 – Sep 2026

Freethought: Scientific pursuit of the truth.

r/Freethought

[Freethought](http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Freethought) is an open forum dedicated to rational, logical and scientific examination of culture, politics, religion, science, business and more! We are now private in protest of Reddit's unfair exploitation of the community that made it what it is today. Here's our Discord: https://discord.gg/25puhg6d

Created May 18, 2008

51KMembers (last snapshot)

15KArchived posts

More than atheism: dedicated to rational, logical and scientific examination of culture, politics, religion, science, business and more!

See the definition of Freethought and Freethinker.

This subreddit is not about:

Philosophy
Libertarianism
"free thoughts" in any literal sense. (use r/SomeThought for random free thoughts)

Please note these rules:

See the main rules, specifically the rule that Opinions are useless without details and evidence. If you have an opinion, bring something along with it to justify why anybody else should pay attention to it.
Off-topic posts will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned.
Astroturfers will be banned - If your account history centers around posting specific stories, without engaging people in debate, you are an astroturfer and will be banned. We aren't here to promote your YT channel.
Trolls and their minions are subject to immediate banning.
Accounts that were obviously created to spam/promote off-topic content will be banned.
Personal attacks are prohibited. State your point without having to denigrate another user.
No Tu Quoque fallacies (appeals to hypocrisy) or attacking the messenger and ignoring the message.
While we know it's impossible to curtail editorial, we want to focus mostly on news from credible sources and will be temporarily blocking certain blog sites that have been recently used to spam and karma-farm.
No wide-sweeping, binary-type generalizations allowed. i.e. "xxx is safe/unsafe/good/bad/all-the-same/" where xxx is any large field of study (terrorists, antifa, vaccines, GMOs, capitalism, conservatives, liberals, political parties etc.) Argue specifics, not huge generalizations that are impossible to scientifically prove true.

*The term "freethought" (one word) has a specific meaning and does not imply whatever you feel you should talk about. *

/r/Freethought is an open forum dedicated to rational, logical and scientific examination of culture, politics, religion, science, business and more!

Freethinkers reject claims and beliefs which are not testable and verifiable using established scientific methods, and encourage a society that espouses the priority of rationality and reason over dogma, emotion and pop doctrine.

Reddit Hivemind not welcome here! Just because you personally disagree with something doesn't mean it should be marginalized. All arguments require evidence.

This forum is focused on examining issues to, as best we can, identify truth from a pure science perspective, with an acknowledgement that we as humans are inherently biased and must celebrate and respect skepticism and be aware of emotion and peer pressure and how it affects our ability to identify and recognize that which is objectively true.

The scientific method always leaves room for re-adjustment if evidence indicates such. As a result, dogmatic behavior (subscribing to passionate viewpoints in lieu of evidence) is antithetical to our ideals.

What is Freethought?
Freethinker F.A.Q.

Remember, downvote stories based on the quality of the content, not whether you agree or disagree with the statement. For more info on Reddiquitte, see voting guidelines.

Rules regarding debate and discussion

r/Freethought endeavors to be a Logical Fallacy Free Zone - What this means is that we encourage debate on the merits of an issue, without resorting to personal attacks or dismissing the messenger by applying some kind of politically-incorrect label, or using dishonest debate tactics that distract from, rather than address the cogent parts of an issue. If you cannot successfully argue your point without using personal indictments, sweeping generalizations or false-dichotomies/equivalences, we will encourage (if not facilitate) your non-participation.

We also strongly condemn the over-simplification of complex issues, or the deviation from an argument by drilling down into semantics or the "two wrongs make a right" fallacy (pointing out hypocrisy needs to be relevant to the debate beyond simply an attempt to discredit someone or something) . As we debate issues, be aware of staying on point, arguing the position raised, not the position you've assumed that isn't clearly specified -- so if you're unsure, ask what the other person means before you go off on a tirade attacking an argument they did not make.

And last but not least: Not all references are of equal weight. Citations should be individually-assessed based on: 1. The depth of their details and how this specifically relates to the issue at hand, 2. The objectivity of the source and the degree to which there is not a conflict-of-interest.

Notice: There will be a zero-tolerance policy for muck-raking, trolling and trying to create drama. If you participate in any threads trying to attack mods or the subreddit you will be banned. r/Freethought is the subreddit, NOT the topic of threads. If you don't want to participate, feel free to unsubscribe. In the meantime, bear with us while we "cleanse" the forum of disruptive influences.

NOTE: This is not a "philosophy forum" unless it specifically relates to science and skepticism. Do not confuse "free thought" with "freethought".

Subreddits worthy of checking out:

Other communities

Reddit Rebuilt is an independent, non-commercial archive and is not affiliated with Reddit, Inc. Content belongs to its original authors.