Freethought Almanac

Lighting a candle in toxic air.
2011-10-13
October 13: Knights Templars and Friday the 13th

The Knights Templars Arrested (1307): Unlucky 13? It was on this date, October 13, 1307 – and presumably on a Friday – that King Philip IV ("the Fair") of France arrested all of the Templar Knights. The religious order had been the subject of rumors of blasphemy and irreligious practices, but in fact the Knights […]

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2011-02-05
February 5: The Pseudoscience of Astrology

Why do people still believe in astrology? People turn to astrology, as they turn to religion, because having the stars guide their lives is a comfort for the faint of heart. But it was always magic.

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2010-12-28
December 28: Apostates at Westminster Abbey

There is a curious collection of the impious residing eternally in and around Westminster: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, John Dryden – and the admittedly agnostic Charles Darwin!

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Ronald Bruce Meyer

Our Fearless Leader.


Daily Almanac

August 3: Étienne Dolet

Étienne Dolet (1509) It was on this date, August 3, 1546, that the French scholar and printer of books critical of religion, Étienne Dolet, was burned alive for his opinions. Dolet was born in Orléans in 1509, possibly also on 3 August, and possibly into a family of wealth and rank. Dolet studied in Paris […]



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