freethinkers

My family were "freethinkers" -- and my concept of God was as a kind of Life Force, an energy which runs through all things and knits them together with Love.

Pharyngula 2008

The deists were what nowadays would be called freethinkers, a name, indeed, by which they were not infrequently known; and they can only be classed together wholly in the main attitude that they adopted, viz. in agreeing to cast off the trammels of authoritative religious teaching in favour of a free and purely rationalistic speculation.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

Humanity, as it is fashioned in the dreams of those who desire to be called freethinkers, may with the lips deny the Bible and its work; but humanity can never deny it in its heart, without the sacrifice of the best that it contains, faith in unity and hope for justice, and without a relapse into the mythology and the "might makes right" of thirty centuries ago.

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 Charles Dudley Warner 1864

Now, some nontheists - an umbrella term that includes atheists, humanists, skeptics and other "freethinkers" - say the trend may be changing.

USATODAY.com News 2011

Let us not imagine, like some who are called freethinkers, that every man, who can think and judge for himself, as he has a right to do, has therefore a right of speaking, any more than of acting, according to the full freedom of his thoughts.

Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope Henry St. John Bolingbroke 1714

Practically all of them seem firmly committed to material naturalism, some judging by the events and speakers they host appear to be, for want of a better term, hardcore dogmatic atheists, and nowhere near 'freethinkers'.

Neither Skepticism Nor Faith James F. McGrath 2010

PZ Myers noted that it would've been nice if he'd used "freethinkers" instead of "nonbelievers", but I'll take what I can get.

Thumbs up for Obama AYDIN 2009

These were two sects among the Jews: of which the former were for the most part notorious hypocrites; the latter, a kind of freethinkers in matters of religion.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete Anonymous

These were two sects among the Jews: of which the former were for the most part notorious hypocrites; the latter, a kind of freethinkers in matters of religion.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete The Challoner Revision Anonymous

These were two sects among the Jews: of which the former were for the most part notorious hypocrites; the latter, a kind of freethinkers in matters of religion.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 47: Matthew The Challoner Revision