American Heathen®

(The following is courtesy of blog contributor/author Ronald Bruce Meyer)

Here’s your week in Freethought History. This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s a reminder that, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times, we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world.

Last Sunday, December 1, but in 1970, American comedienne, writer, and actress Sarah Silverman was born. Her comic style addresses social taboos and controversial topics such as racism, sexism and religion by criticizing such small-mindedness ironically. Silverman says she was not “raised with any religion,” only considering herself ethnically Jewish. About her Jewishness, which Silverman mines for material, she says, “I have no religion. But culturally I can’t escape it; I’m very Jewish.” During a 2005 interview, KCRW radio host Elvis Mitchell commented on her “Jesus Is Magic” t-shirt, to which Silverman replied that she is “almost positive there’s no god.” During a 2009 appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher” on HBO, Silverman said, “I can’t imagine there’s a God, personally. Um, I’m not religious. I don’t have, wow. I don’t have religion at all.” When Maher, an atheist himself, said he agreed, she added, “I’m not ruling it out.” But in a Twitter comment, Sarah Silverman took the issue down to its materialistic elements: “We’re all just molecules, Cutie.”

Last Monday, December 2, but in 1547, Spanish conquistador of Mexico, during the time of Aztec King Montezuma II (1466-1520), Hernando Cortes, died peacefully on a lavish estate near Seville. About a generation after Columbus discovered the Americas as a good source of Christian converts, Cortes found the Christianizing of the highly civilized Mexican tribes an excellent excuse to advance his appetite for conquest, control and capital. Cortes was born about 1485 in Medellín, Spain, heir to a noble family of fallen fortunes. His big break came in 1519 with the opportunity to lead an expedition from Cuba to the Yucatán Peninsula, and thence into Mexico, to make contact with, and converts of, the natives. It is rarely reported in school history books that the reason the Christianizing of the Aztecs went so well in the beginning was that the Aztecs were already practicing many seemingly Roman Catholic rituals! The Aztecs sang hymns and prayers, made offerings in their temples, burned aromatic herbs on the altars, fasted, confessed sins to (and received penances from) their priests, and practiced a sort of “holy communion,” in which they broke up a paste image of their god and distributed it to be eaten with great reverence. Even better, Cortes had a peculiar legend on his side: Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec creator-god, was depicted as a pale-skinned, bearded man in a conical hat, his long, flowing robe decorated with crosses and feathers. Cortes arrived in Yucatán looking just so. Furthermore, continuing the parallel with the Christian story, Quetzalcoatl was the only son of a supreme deity. But appearances, as the Aztecs found out to their sorrow, could be deceiving. The Catholic Encyclopedia, which claims Cortes among the faithful, admits that aside from his military aptitude, shrewdness and daring, the explorer exhibited “no excess of scruples in morals.” So when Cortes died, on this date in 1547, he died a good Catholic, if not a good man.

Last Tuesday, December 3, but in 1960, British-American actress Julianne Moore was born. Because of her mother’s heritage, Moore claimed British citizenship in 2011. Traveling a lot as an Army child introduced her to multiple schools and types of people, including high school in Frankfurt, Germany. She also picked up her desire for an acting career, earning a BFA in Theatre in 1983. But after moving to New York to pursue stage acting, she adapted names from mother and father to become Julianne Moore. Appearing in literary as well as popular plays and television, Moore got some solid notice as a supporting character in the 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Over the next two decades Moore starred or featured in Boogie Nights (Oscar-nominated, 1997), Far From Heaven and The Hours (2002, both Oscar-nominated), The End of the Affair (1999, Oscar-nominated), The Kids Are All Right (2010) and as Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in Game Change (2012). Moore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. Politically, Moore is a staunch pro-choice advocate on abortion, an active member of Planned Parenthood and supports marriage equality. She is also open about her atheism. On “Inside The Actors Studio,” the host asked her, “What would you like to hear God say to you at the pearly gates?” Julianne Moore replied, “Well… I guess you were wrong, I do exist.”

Last Wednesday, December 4, but in 1835, British writer Samuel Butler was born. Being the son and the grandson of clergymen, Butler began to study along the same lines, but in 1859 he refused to be ordained, instead taking to literature. He published his first novel, Erewhon, (the title is the word “nowhere” spelled backwards) in 1871. Erewhon, at first published anonymously, made Butler’s reputation. In it he skewered the churches. There followed brilliantly witty satirical works, including his criticism of Victorian society, The Way of All Flesh (1903). In his works Butler scarcely disguises his criticisms of Christianity. He once said, “An honest God’s the noblest work of man,” spoofing Alexander Pope’s line. And in an essay called “Unprofessional Sermons” from his Note-Books, Butler wrote, “Prayers are to men as dolls are to children. They are not without use and comfort, but it is not easy to take them very seriously.” Not to be confused with the Samuel Butler who wrote the satirical poem “Hudibras” two centuries earlier, it was Samuel Butler who wrote, in The Way of All Flesh, “A clergyman can hardly ever allow himself to look facts fairly in the face. It is his profession to support one side; it is impossible, therefore, for him to make an unbiased examination of the other.”

Last Thursday, December 5, but in 1974, the last episode of the ground-breaking BBC-TV comedy series, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” was shown on British television. “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” was broadcast as 46 30-minute episodes beginning on 5 October 1969. Some of their most memorable sketches include a man trying to return a dead parrot to a pet shop; a cheese shop that is completely uncontaminated by cheese; the Lumberjack Song; the Spam song and many others. Nothing is sacred in the skewed Monty Python universe: not politics, not sex, and certainly not religion. Among their irreligious revelries are “The Spanish Inquisition,” “Crackpot Religions Ltd” and the song, “Every Sperm Is Sacred,” a satire on the Catholic church’s attitude toward birth control—

Every sperm is sacred
Every sperm is great
If a sperm is wasted
God gets quite irate.

The skewering of faith continued in the Monty Python movies, especially in the 1979 Monty Python’s Life of Brian, which satirizes the rise of the Christian religion with a fictional Brian who keeps getting mistaken for the Messiah. Brian was banned in Norway and Ireland for blasphemy — then cleverly re-released in the U.S. on 30 April 2004 for its 25th anniversary, two months after the theatrical release of The Passion of the Christ!

Yesterday, December 6, but in 1877, American inventor Thomas Edison demonstrated the first sound recording at West Orange, New Jersey. On that occasion he recited “Mary Had a Little Lamb” into a recording device using a needle to scratch a sound track onto a cylinder wrapped in tinfoil. The first sound recording followed the first electronic long-distance telegraph message by 33 years. The secular children’s poem was recorded in preference to the paraphrase of Numbers 23:23, “What hath God wrought,” transmitted from Baltimore to an astounded Congress in Washington DC by the Nativist politician and painter Samuel F.B. Morse. While Morse thanked God for what the scientific work Hans Christian Oersted, Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday had wrought, the skeptical Edison credited the proper authorities. “A good idea is never lost,” Edison said, “Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another. … Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in novel ideas others have used successfully.”

Today, December 7, but in 1928, American linguist, political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky was born. His family was highly educated and instilled in Chomsky a love of learning that took him to the University of Pennsylvania at age 16. There he found his life’s work in linguistics, criticizing the behaviorist trend in modern linguistics by setting out his ideas on transformational grammar. Chomsky is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In the 1960s, coinciding with his criticism of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, Chomsky became activist. He was arrested many times and “honored” by making it into President Richard Nixon’s “Enemies List.” Rather than giving a straight answer to the question of whether or not he is an atheist, Chomsky approaches it as a philosopher should – by questioning the question: in a panel discussion from 2006, Chomsky replied, “Like everyone participating, I’m what’s called here a ‘secular atheist,’ except that I can’t even call myself an ‘atheist’ because it is not at all clear what I’m being asked to deny.” Chomsky continues, “As for the various religions, there’s no doubt that they are very meaningful to adherents, and allow them to delude themselves into thinking there is some meaning to their lives beyond what we agree is the case. I’d never try to talk them out of the delusions, which are necessary for them to live a life that makes some sense to them.” In The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (1993, 2003), Chomsky writes, “I was just looking at a study by an American sociologist (published in England) of comparative religious attitudes in various countries. The figures are shocking. Three quarters of the American population literally believe in religious miracles. The numbers who believe in the devil, in resurrection, in God doing this and that – it’s astonishing. These numbers aren’t duplicated anywhere else in the industrial world. You’d have to maybe go to mosques in Iran or do a poll among old ladies in Sicily to get numbers like this.” It was Noam Chomsky who said, when interviewed by Wallace Shawn, “[T]he Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon.”

Other birthdays and events this week—

December 1: American comedian and film director Woody Allen was born (1935).

December 3: English author Joseph Conrad was born (1857).

December 4: British historian Thomas Carlyle was born (1795).

December 5: The 8th President of the United States (1837-1841), and the first US President born in the United States, Martin Van Buren was born (1782).

December 6: French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac was born (1778).

December 7: Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I (Αθηναγόρας Α’) simultaneously lifted the 900-year-old mutual excommunications that led to the split of their two churches in 1054, thus ending the “Great Schism” (1965).

December 7: Italian composer Pietro Mascagni was born (1863).

We can look back, but the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages in Freethought history at the links in the American Heathen blog, which take you to my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.

(The following post is courtesy of blog contributor/author Ronald Bruce Meyer)

Here’s your week in Freethought History. This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s a reminder that, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times, we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world.

Last Sunday, November 24, but in 1632, Portuguese-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza was born. Spinoza’s career path took a sudden turn when his open skepticism about the nature of God, the existence of angels, and the immortality of the soul prompted the rabbis to issue on Spinoza a writ of cherem (חרם), or excommunication – showing that Jews can be just as intolerant of Freethought as Christians. Since he had been expelled from the Jewish community, and Christians rarely associated with Jews, anyway, Spinoza was left alone. His alienation caused him to change his name from “Baruch,” meaning “blessed” – which brings to mind a similarity to the name Barack, the 44th President of the United States, which also means “blessed” – to “Benedict,” meaning “spoken well of” or “praised.” Even in relatively tolerant Holland, Spinoza was persecuted. He was accused of being an Atheist. Spinoza’s religious ideas comprised a nuanced redefinition of God which more closely resembled Pantheism. It was Spinoza who said, “[P]opular religion may be summed up as respect for ecclesiastics.”

Last Monday, November 25, but in 1835, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was born. Hard times in Scotland forced his family to emigrate to the US in 1848. By the close of the American Civil War, Carnegie had organized the Carnegie Steel Company, which brought the industry to Pittsburgh. By age sixty-five, Carnegie had acquired a great fortune – he was considered the richest man in the country – and sold his steel company to J.P. Morgan. Thereafter he devoted his life to philanthropy, giving away over $350,000,000 to found libraries and other public benefits, and saying, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” American author and liberal cleric Moncure Daniel Conway, who knew him well, says that Carnegie always described himself as an Agnostic. A Catholic weekly stated that when Carnegie was challenged about his many gifts of church organs he humorously replied that he did this “in the hope that the organ music would distract the congregation’s attention from the rest of the service.” Indeed, Andrew Carnegie abjured “all creeds” and said he was “a disciple of Confucius and Franklin.”

Last Tuesday, November 26, but in 1621, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Although today this thoroughly American holiday is commemorated by church services and family gatherings, and Presidents George Washington (a Deist) and Abraham Lincoln (a skeptic) both issued religious proclamations in honor of the day, amazingly enough, Thanksgiving Day was originally a secular celebration. The first Thanksgiving, in honor of a bountiful harvest, was in the fall of 1621 – sometime between September 21 and November 11. The Pilgrims of Plymouth colony had a very strict definition of what constitutes a religious holiday: to the Pilgrims, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday for going to church and thanking God for a specific blessing. But the three days of feasting, dancing, singing and game-playing at the first Thanksgiving would not have fit the decorum dictated by Pilgrim piety. The Pilgrims surrounded themselves on that day with the true founders of the feast – not God, but the Native Americans who helped them survive the harsh winter of 1620-1621. The chief virtue of Thanksgiving Day in modern times is that it can just as easily be celebrated without the plastic veneer of piety, if you and yours happen to be happy and healthy. American Freethinkers celebrate Thanksgiving Day simply as a day of gratitude that loved ones can be near and prosperity at hand. But there is no reason to raise your hands to God when so many of our fellow human beings need a hand!

Last Wednesday, November 27, but in 1940, Chinese-American martial artist, actor, founder of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee (李小龍) was born. In Hong Kong, Lee studied Wing Chun style martial arts, presumably because he kept getting into, and losing, street fights. Lee returned to the city of his birth, San Francisco, in 1959. After some moderate success in supporting roles on American TV shows, such as “Green Hornet” (1966-1967) and “Batman” (1966), Lee returned to Hong Kong and took leading roles in The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972). Lee achieved creative control for his third film, Way of the Dragon (1972) and much box office success. The next year, 1973, Lee starred in Enter the Dragon. Around 1967, Lee developed a fighting style-without-a-style which he called “Jeet Kune Do” (截拳道) that was particularly suited to street fighting. Author John Little, writing in The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee (1996), said, “Lee felt that anything which substituted the ways or beliefs of others in the place of teaching you how to cultivate your own was a step in the wrong direction. For this reason, Lee was opposed to the doctrines – or rather the dogmas – of organized religion.” In an interview videotaped in the summer of 1972, journalist Alex Ben Block (author of The Legend of Bruce Lee, 1974) asked Lee what his religious affiliation is. Lee answered, “None whatsoever.” Pressing further on whether or not he believes in God, Lee replied, “To be perfectly frank, I really do not.”

Last Thursday, November 28, but in 1943, American songwriter and singer Randy Newman was born. Besides charting his own recordings, such as “Short People” (1977) and “Baltimore” (1978), Joe Cocker covered his song “You Can Leave Your Hat On” (from The Full Monty, 1997) and Three Dog Night covered “Mama Told me Not to Come.” Newman wrote songs for such films “Burn On” from Major League (1989), “I Love to See You Smile” from Parenthood (1989), “Mr. President – Have Pity on the Working Man” from Forrest Gump (1994) and “Lonely At The Top” from You’ve Got Mail (1998). In spite of that distinguished list, it wasn’t until his 16th songwriter nomination that Randy Newman took home a gold Oscar statue for the song “If I Didn’t Have You,” from the 2001 film Monsters, Inc. Randy Newman’s fan website, operated by Jim Coan, quotes his father as saying Randy Newman lost his faith, if he ever had any, at age nine or ten. Newman himself speaks of his atheism in many interviews, saying in one, “I never had faith. … But I have respect for the idea. There’s no joy being an atheist.” Some of his lyrics, especially from his 1972 album Sail Away, tell the same story:

And the Lord said: I burn down your cities – how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That’s why I love mankind…
You really need me…
That’s why I love mankind.
—“God’s Song”

Yesterday, November 29, but in 1787, King Louis XVI (1754-1793) promulgated an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants under French law. French Protestants, then called Huguenots, had gained toleration a century before for their religious beliefs (and respite from the Wars of Religion) with the Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598 under Henry IV. But 87 years later, Louis XIV, under the influence of his Catholic confessors, revoked the Edict. So it had taken 102 years for French Protestants – those who had chosen to remain in France after Nantes was revoked – to regain toleration. What is toleration? Catholics consider religious toleration a “patient forbearance in the presence of an evil which one is unable or unwilling to prevent.” And that idea springs from the arrogant assumption that any one church holds not only the truth, but all of the truth, forever and unchanging, and that no other religion contains any truth (about which John Stuart Mill warned us).

Of course, Atheism was never tolerated in any age until our own, and then only just barely. King Louis went only halfway in his nod to freedom of religion in 1787, as there is no true freedom of religion until there is freedom from religion – and in the 300-some years since that edict of tolerance, although no one in the civilized world dies for disagreeing anymore, humanity has taken only small steps toward discarding the notion that loyal citizens must serve the most popular God.

Today, November 30, but in 1835, American writer and humorist Mark Twain was born. Brought up in Hannibal, Missouri, he first encountered writers by apprenticing to a printer, but he became a Mississippi riverboat pilot and adopted his pen-name from the call – “Mark twain!” meaning two fathoms – used when sounding river shallows. Early on, Twain’s humor took an irreverent turn: “I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey,” he wrote. Having heard a tale about a frog-jumping contest, he eventually developed it into his signature humor story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1867). Between 1876 and 1884 he published his most memorable works: Tom Sawyer (1881), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and Huckleberry Finn (1884). In such works as “Christian Science” (1903), “Eve’s Diary” (1906), and “The Mysterious Stranger” (1918), Twain shows his disdain of Christianity. But his 1906 work, “What is Man?” shows the greatest American humorist as solidity skeptical. He has his character Pudd’nhead Wilson quip, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” In one letter, he equates Jesus and Satan: “These two gentlemen,” he says, “have had more influence than all others put together, and 99 percent of it was Satan’s.” The Devil, he goes on, is “worth very nearly a hundred times as much to the business as was the influence of all the rest of the Holy Family put together.” In his posthumously published (1962) “Letters from Earth” he writes:

Man is a marvelous curiosity … he thinks he is the Creator’s pet … he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn’t it a quaint idea?

Other birthdays and events this week—

November 26: The creator of Snoopy, Lucy, Charlie Brown and the other characters of the “Peanuts” comics world, cartoonist Charles M. Schulz was born (1922).

November 27: Pope Urban II declared the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont (1095).

November 28: British writer, and the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1891), Sir Leslie Stephen was born (1832).

We can look back, but the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages in Freethought history at the links in the American Heathen blog, which take you to my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.

On Saturday, November 23rd, the first episode of AHTV was filmed.  The cast and crew did an amazing job on the production! Associate Producer, Neil Viker (vee-ker) flew in from L.A. for the shoot and was instrumental in making the day a productive one.  Neil also uploaded the show intro animation to the AHTV production server.  Animators Jon Hooper and Jessie May Perry did an AMAZING job!  I can assure you that it’s something you don’t want to miss.  In fact, it is SO GOOD I had to write and record a brand new show theme!  Inspiration sometimes comes in the form of seeds planted by other talented artists.  This case was no exception!

I started editing the first episode yesterday.  The footage is very good and so far things are coming together nicely.  The story of AHTV, the “Not-So-Ready-For-Primetime” Television Talk Show series is scheduled to debut December 25th on AHTV’s blip.tv channel.  This series will prove to be a great x-mas present for the Religious Reich! HA!

Here’s a pic of the AHTV cast and crew… From left to right:

Director – Amber Harris,  Assistant Director – Bobby Prentice, Audio – Misti Muller, Executive Producer – Sherry Evans, Star – RJ Evans, Co-Star – Chuck Doswell, Co-Star – Trace Renee, Associate Producer – Neil Viker, Script Supervisor – Ellie Langston, Supporting Actor and Propmaster/FX – Jeremy Langston, Cinematographer – Collin Gibson.  NOT PICTURED: Co-Stars David2.1, Ronald Bruce Meyer, Al Stefanelli, Yahweh, Ken Humphreys.  Closing Credits Animator – Austin Farmer, Web Distribution Specialist – Caleb Carroll, Co-Writer – Lance Carter

And below is a vid capture of Co-Star Trace Renee from one of the video vignettes in the show…

(The following post is courtesy of blog contributor/author Ronald Bruce Meyer)

Here’s your week in Freethought History. This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s a reminder that, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times, we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world.

Last Sunday, November 17, but in 2001, the directorial debut of film actor Bill Paxton, entitled Frailty, was first viewed at the Deep Ellum Film Festival in Texas. Paxton, who played “Dad,” was born in Texas, as were his co-stars, Matthew McConaughey, playing the character introduced as Fenton Meiks, and Powers Boothe, playing FBI Agent Wesley Doyle. Frailty begins with the son of “Dad” Meiks (McConaughey) introducing himself to FBI Agent Doyle (Boothe) and claiming to know the identity of the “God’s Hand” serial killer Doyle has been tracking. There follow extended flashbacks in which the peaceful-yet-troubled Meiks relates to Doyle how, when he was a pre-teen, his father was visited by an angel who gave him a list and a mission: to destroy demons masquerading as human beings. The film carries the point to its perverse end: if you believe God speaks to you, how can you disobey him? By its own logic, no matter how immoral your actions may seem to someone who didn’t experience the visions, if it’s God’s will, it can’t be wrong – remember, in the Bible (Gen. 22), God asked Abraham to murder his only son Isaac. And since “Dad” (and only “Dad”) sees the true demons, we are left wondering – if God indeed speaks to mankind and human frailty is such that we actually believe we are doing a good thing when doing a bad thing – that “Dad” might, after all, be right.

Last Monday, November 18, but in 1897, English experimental physicist Patrick Blackett was born. From a childhood interest in model airplanes and wireless (crystal radio), he won entry to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight. When World War I broke out, Blackett was assigned duty as a midshipman. He left the Navy to study mathematics and physics at Cambridge and graduated Magdalene College in 1921, taking a research position at Cavendish Laboratory. From there he began the experimental work for which he is known: cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism. Blackett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1948 for his investigation of cosmic rays using his invention of the counter-controlled cloud chamber. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and later its President (1965-1970). Politically, Baron Blackett allied with the left and called himself a socialist. His views influenced the Labor Government in the 1960s. English physicist and radio astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell wrote that those who worked with Patrick Blackett in the laboratory “were dominated by his immensely powerful personality, and those who knew him elsewhere soon discovered that the public image thinly veiled a sensitive and humane spirit.” In Patrick Blackett: Sailor, Scientist, Socialist (2002), Blackett is described as a “Heretic” by his mentor, Ernest Rutherford. Mary Jo Nye, in her notice (2008), writes, “The grandson of a vicar on his father’s side, Blackett respected religious observances that were established social customs, but described himself as agnostic or atheist” and that “He believed that science, clear thinking, and good will could win the day.”

Last Tuesday, November 19, but in 1962, American film actress and director Jodie Foster was born. One of the brighter intellectual lights in Hollywood, Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a BA in Literature in 1985. She is also fluent in French. Since before her first notable film appearance, as a twelve-year-old, playing a prostitute opposite Robert DeNiro, in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress, 1976), and afterward, Foster has appeared over 50 times in film and television roles. These include The Accused (Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress, 1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (New York Film Critics Circle and Academy Award for Best Actress, 1991). Actors are not often like the characters they play (that’s why they call it acting), but Foster found a kindred spirit in Dr. Eleanor Arroway, the astronomer in the 1997 film based on Carl Sagan’s novel, Contact. In the film, Foster’s character says: “What is more likely? That an all-powerful mysterious God created the Universe and then decided not to give any proof of His existence, or that He simply does not exist at all?” In real life, Foster says, “I absolutely believe what Ellie believes – that there is no direct evidence, so how could you ask me to believe in God when there’s absolutely no evidence that I can see? I do believe in the beauty and the awe-inspiring mystery of the science that’s out there that we haven’t discovered yet, that there are scientific explanations for phenomena that we call mystical because we don’t know any better.”

Last Wednesday, November 20, but in 1752, the poet generally regarded as the first Romantic poet in English, Thomas Chatterton, was born. Poverty and rejection were the story of his life, but in the brief 17 years of his existence, Chatterton forged mediæval poetry and prose of such quality – the “Rowley Poems” – that it deceived even Horace Walpole. It is true that Chatterton used theistic language in some of his poems, but from his satirical “Last Will and Testament” (1770) we find these lines: “I also leave my religion to Dr. Cutts Barton, Dean of Bristol, hereby empowering the Sub-Sacrist to strike him on the head when he goes to sleep in church. My powers of utterance I give to the Reverend Mr. Broughton, hoping he will employ them to a better purpose than reading letters on the immortality of the soul. I leave the Reverend Mr. Catcott some little of my free thinking, that he may put on spectacles of reason and see how vilely he is duped in believing the scriptures literally.” Chatterton was too proud to accept charity and too depressed at the poor payment for his poetry by leading London publishers. On 24 August 1770, he poisoned himself by drinking arsenic in water. Too late, Burns, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Coleridge and other poets declared him a genius and a prodigy. Thomas Chatterton had written to his family shortly before his death, “I am no Christian.”

Last Thursday, November 21, but in 1694, French writer François-Marie Arouet, who became famous as Voltaire, was born. His education began under a skeptical French Jesuit. After he published a witty satire on the Prince d’Orleans, a notorious scoundrel, he was exiled in 1716 and placed in the Bastille the next year. Arouet adopted the pen name Voltaire and wrote his first play. In 1733, on returning from England, he published his Philosophic Letters on the English, which were burned by the hangman. The “arch-mocker,” as the clergy dubbed him, spent most of the rest of his life exiled from Paris. He spent some time in the court of Frederick the Great, a kindred spirit. In 1758 he finally settled where he could easily escape across the French border should the need arise: Ferney. There he lived the last 20 years of his life, writing some of his best works: Candide (1759), Treatise on Toleration (1763), and his Philosophical Dictionary (1764). All his life Voltaire was a Deist, with no belief in immortality or free will. Clerical claims that he died pining for a priest are false – in fact, all he would say was, “I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.” Indeed, he wrote in 1767, “I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.” After Shakespeare, Voltaire is the most famous writer in Western history. Here are some random quotes from his Philosophical Dictionary:

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reasoning. … Which is more dangerous, fanaticism or atheism? Fanaticism is certainly a thousand times more deadly; for atheism inspires no bloody passion, whereas fanaticism does. … Fanaticism causes crimes to be committed … Whenever an important event, a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the church, such is always signalized as the Finger of God.

Yesterday, November 22, but in 1921, American comedian Rodney Dangerfield was born. Described by the LA Times as “the google-eyed comic famed for his self-deprecating one-liners and signature phrase ‘I can’t get no respect,’” from the 1960s became a headliner in Las Vegas and made frequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Tonight Show. At the peak of his career in the 1980s, Dangerfield’s comedy album “No Respect” won a Grammy Award (1980) and he appeared in several films: Caddyshack (1980), Easy Money (1983) and Back To School (1986). He influenced many younger comedians, such as Robert Klein, Bob Saget and Chris Rock, and, after watching him perform at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles in the 1980s, mentored an up-and-comer named Jim Carrey. Dangerfield was awarded the Lifetime Creative Achievement Award in 1994 and also achieved a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I tell ya, I get no respect from anyone. I bought a cemetery plot. The guy said, “There goes the neighborhood!”

Less than three months before his death on 5 October 2004, Dangerfield admitted to radio host Howard Stern that he had been an atheist for a long time. Stern asked Dangerfield if he believed in an afterlife. Dangerfield replied that he is a “logical” atheist and added, “We’re apes––do apes go anyplace?” “So there’s no heaven?” Stern pressed, “Judaism for you never mattered?” “Nope. Never mattered. All religion never mattered. Atheist all the way. That’s it,” said Dangerfield. Though he died, age 82, without religion, at Rodney Dangerfield’s funeral, actress Farrah Fawcett led a ceremonial Native American butterfly release.

Today, November 23, but in 1965, American poet, historian, philosopher, and author Jennifer Michael Hecht was born. By 1995 she had earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Columbia University. To date she has published two prize-winning poetry collections. On history and philosophy, Hecht has published Doubt: A History (2003), The End of the Soul (2003) and The Happiness Myth (2007). Her scholarly articles have been published widely. She is an honorary board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Hecht was interviewed about her book on the history of doubt in 2009 on the “Speaking of Faith” program (now called “On Being”) for American Public Media. Host Krista Tippett asked Hecht to explain her book. Hecht replied, “Like belief, doubt takes a lot of different forms, from ancient Skepticism to modern scientific empiricism, from doubt in many gods to doubt in one God, to doubt that recreates and enlivens faith and doubt that is really disbelief. … You have to be a little bold and a little brave in most periods of time to be a doubter.” Elsewhere in the interview, Hecht gives a nuanced view of religion and morality—

The thing is most doubters throughout history, even if they doubted all the way to not believing in any kind of religious idea, most of them … aren’t against religion. … They just have to fill in certain parts differently, because they don’t think that the world is being guided, or has been created, or is being judged by anyone. And if you don’t think that you’re being watched, and if you don’t think that, for instance, morality comes from some outside source, it immediately gives you an incredible amount of responsibility.

Keeping to that theme, in addressing the FFRF Convention in 2009, Jennifer Michael Hecht said, “If there is no god – and there isn’t – then we [humans] made up morality. And I’m very impressed.”

Other birthdays and events this week—

November 18: Cult leader Jim Jones conducted the People’s Temple suicide in Guyana (1978).

November 18: The French philosopher best known for his Historical and Critical Dictionary, Pierre Bayle was born (1647).

November 18: According to Jewish legend, Noah’s Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat after the Biblical “Flood” (2347 BCE).

November 19: American media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner was born (1938).

November 19: American television talk show host Dick Cavett was born (1936).

November 19: American television and radio host Larry King was born (1933).

November 20: South African writer, political activist and 1991 Nobel laureate in Literature, Nadine Gordimer was born (1923).

November 20: Finnish philosopher and sociologist Edward Westermarck was born (1862).

November 21: Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk (Björk Guðmundsdóttir) was born (1965).

November 22: English novelist, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, George Eliot was born (1819).

November 23: French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal had his famous religious conversion (1654).

November 23: American Freethought blogger, liberal polemicist and creator of the Freethought Almanac, Ronald Bruce Meyer was born (1954).

We can look back, but the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages in Freethought history at the links in the American Heathen blog, which take you to my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.