"the only people who really frighten him are not those who have no faith or belief but those whose belief is so steadfast that they have stopped searching"

Well put. Most of the religious people I know are continually searching and asking further questions. That's why I enjoy being around them, because they are continuing to search, and they are not resting on their laurels or clinging to rigid dogma. This is also true of the non-religious people I most enjoy being around...that their minds aren't all made up and aren't tied to any absolute dogma, but are continuing to look to further possibilities.

It's the ones who figure they've got it all neatly tied up and have no further questions to ask who worry me. So I agree with the bishop you mentioned, "leveller".

I've always been a freethinker. That's a person who thinks freely, for himself, realizes that he doesn't have all the answers, continues to search, continues to ask questions, is not constrained by official lines of dogma..........whether religious or otherwise. A freethinker may be religious, he may be secular, he can easily be either one or the other.

My point being, M, that freethinkers are found within the religions as well as outside them. Some of the most courageous and thoughtful freethinkers I've ever know are also religious.

The enemy of the freethinker is the dogmatist, and dogmatists are found both within and outside of religions. The thing they all share is the rigid presumption that their way is the ONLY right way...and that everyone else is wrong, perhaps even evil! You see these dogmatists in extreme political movements of all kinds, acting with or without any connection to religion. You also see them in extreme religious sects and proponents of extreme philosophies. There is in them a strong element of fear allied with an intent to dominate others. They are the enemies of both freethinking religion AND freethinking secular life.