Salams Joseph, thank you for your comments.
Well, what do I mean by free thinking? Most religious people fall in trap of circular reasoning in religious matters. Example: Person X is a prophet, because Holy Book Y says so. And Book Y is holy because Prophet X brought it. This I see many times in Christians too. When I ask questions about Jesus being God (!) they bring up many verses from the Bible. When I question Bible, then they say it is Word of Jesus the God and it is unquestionable. Thats just vocalisation of what they are infested with. Thinking should be able to go beyond that.
Muslims may also do that. But the difference in Islam is that there's One God above everything. Muslims are responsible to Him, they can communicate with Him with no intermediaries. Books and Prophets are not necessarily proofs of His existence, they are reminders out of His mercy so that humans do not follow their egos. Heart of the Muslim is the throne of God, noone and nothing is needed as an intermediary. Even if there were no Books or Prophets, He would make Himself known to hearts of people. There would still be believers. Though they would be small in numbers, since humans are inclined to go astray if they are not continuously warned. Also if He did not establish His religions people would have problems in life and perhaps there would be chaos.
So, just one axiom is enough for Islam to unfold thereupon, which is "There is One God." (Tawheed)
1) There's one God
2) He can (and does) warn people by Prophets and Books
3) Muhammad can be (and is) one of His messengers
4) Qur'an can be (and is) the Book which God sent via him
5) ...
I'm sure you can make a similar thread for Christianity as well, but as I said it would not be that simple, thinking Trinity, first sin etc. (Take first in for ex. You need it to be revaled by Jesus to know about first sin. But you need first sin to have Jesus. In which order would you put them in such a thread?)
I have to mention that axioms by definition are not verifiable and refutable. So, Trinity might be such an axiom. But can we randomly pick axioms? What makes the difference?
The difference lies in the usability and strength of the structure you build on the axioms. How Christianity performed as a religion? and How Islam performed as a religion? How many of us thought about these?
These I mean by free thinking.
Regards,
Unite