Joseph McCabe (1867) It was on this date, November 11, 1867, that Freethought writer Joseph Martin McCabe was born in Manchester, the product of Protestant East Anglians and Irish Catholic stock. He was named Joseph, after the saint, because he was, from infancy, promised to the priesthood. He entered the priesthood at age 16 and […]

Sir Patrick Geddes (1854) It was on this date, October 2, 1854, that the "father of town planning," Scottish biologist Sir Patrick Geddes was born in Ballater in Aberdeenshire. He grew up in Perthshire, and studied variously at London, Paris, Edinburgh, and Montpellier Universities. Geddes traveled widely and taught physiology, zoology, botany, sociology, civics and […]

“At first sight nothing seems more obvious than that everything has a beginning and an end… The prodigious development of physics has now reached the same conclusion…”

Keith said, "As long as man remains an inquiring animal, there can never be a complete unanimity in our fundamental beliefs. The more diverse our paths, the greater is likely to be the divergence of beliefs."

In “Of Human Bondage,” the author's surrogate, Philip Carey, "looked upon Christianity as a degrading bondage that must be cast away at any cost..." In "Summing Up," Maugham said, "I remain an agnostic."

"It has taken nearly 2000 years for the married woman to get back that personal independence which she enjoyed under the later Roman Law, but lost through the influence which Christianity exercised on European legislation. And it may be truly said that she regained it, not by the aid of the churches, but despite the opposition."