We've all heard it said, "Watch that first step… it's a doozie!" Well, it certainly pertains to freethinking. When we begin to question our previously held notions of theism, we're beginning to "think outside the box," as the expression goes. Thinking outside the box is a huge step in personal development. Once we realize that there's no reason not to reevaluate all our deeply held notions, we're free to really grow.
To be fair, atheists, agnostics and other freethinkers aren't the only ones who are doing this. Those who embrace alternative lifestyles are living outside the box. A homosexual person has questioned the whole concept of male/female pairs being the only possible arrangement, for example.
Of course, not everyone who takes this first step goes on to take a second. There are, for example, atheists who never bother to apply their reasoning to anything other than the God question. There are anti-gay atheists, as hard as that is for me to believe. Such people may be atheists, but they're not freethinkers. They haven't stepped outside the box. They've just poked a hole in it.
What these people are failing to see is that this first step has the effect of opening up entire new worlds to us. We're free to question everything! We put the concept of God on the shelf with the Tooth Fairy. We might then realize, in fact, that there's nothing wrong with non-heterosexual and/or non-monogamous relationships. We might then question the formats of our government, our education system, or any of a hundred other things that are typically accepted for no other reason than "that's the way it's always been done."
For a lot people, once they've stepped outside the box, it's almost impossible to step back inside. Most of us wouldn't want to. In fact, for some, once they're outside, the box itself just vanishes. It's like losing your virginity. You can't get it back.
You've been freed from the box. Freed to think. Freed to grow. Freed to be everything a human being is capable of being.
