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.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Last Sunday, August 4, but in 1792, British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was born. After reading the radical writings of Thomas Paine, William Godwin and Baron D’Holbach, he became an Atheist and a Materialist – a position he maintained throughout his creative life. He was educated at Eton, where he was known as “Shelley the Atheist,” and at Oxford. A believer in free speech, while at Oxford, Shelley wrote in defense of Daniel Isaac Eaton, a bookseller charged with selling books by Thomas Paine. In a pamphlet called The Necessity of Atheism, he attacked compulsory Christian practice. In it, Shelley wrote this gem (after D’Holbach): “If God has spoken, why is the world not convinced?” So shocked was Oxford that Shelley was expelled on 25 March 1811.

Guy de Maupassant

Last Monday, August 5, but in 1850, French naturalistic writer Guy de Maupassant was born. Between 1880 and 1891 Maupassant wrote about 300 short stories (a literary form that he mastered), some six novels and many poems – totaling about 29 volumes when published 1908-1910. His stories include “Ball of Fat,” which made his literary reputation and may have been the inspiration for John Ford’s 1945 western, Stagecoach – which in turn made the reputation of a struggling young actor named John Wayne. Another short story, “The Inn,” may have inspired Steven King’s 1977 novel, The Shining. His “Clair de Lune,” and most of the rest of his literary efforts, express a deep religious skepticism, if not outright Atheism. Guy de Maupassant once said, “Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.”

Last Tuesday, August 6, but in 1973, the erotic actress and MENSA member, with an IQ of 156, known as Asia Carrera was born to a Japanese father and a German mother. Eurasian genes and some cosmetic surgery contributed to her stunning good looks, which caused her to be “discovered” by erotic film director Bud Lee, who cast her in her first film. She married Lee in 1995, starred in or featured in over 270 films, and divorced Lee but remained friends in 2003. Currently retired, this self-styled computer geek idolizes Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet. Both Buffet and Carrera are atheists. About her beliefs, Asia says, “I’ve always been an atheist. Science explains everything. There is no meaning in life except to be the best at something.” And, “Religion is silly. When you’re dead, you turn into a source for future flowers and plants.”

The Amazing Randi

Last Wednesday, August 7, but in 1928, Canadian-American magician and psychic debunker James “The Amazing” Randi was born. From the 1950s he toured the world as a magician, stage mentalist and escape artist, like his idol, Houdini, and developed a strong skepticism toward psychics. Randi was a founding fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), based in Buffalo, NY, a non-profit organization devoted to the critical examination of paranormal and supernatural claims. As for his personal beliefs, in Randi’s 1989 book The Faith Healers, he writes, “I am frequently approached following lectures and loudly asked if I am a Christian and/or whether I believe in God – the assumption being that I understand what the questioner means by both terms. My answer has always been that I have found no compelling reason to adopt such beliefs.”

Medieval Communion

Sixtus IV

Yesterday, August 9, but in 1471, Franciscan Friar-turned-Cardinal Francesco della Rovere was elevated to the Papacy as Sixtus IV, and he provides a window on the morals of the 15th century. A pious man, Sixtus also loved his family – he had a brother, three sisters, and fourteen nephews and nieces (two of those nephews may have been his own sons) – and from the papal treasury Sixtus spared no expense to make them comfortable. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits that Sixtus “fell more and more under his dominating passion of nepotism, heaping riches and favours on his unworthy relations.” It is generally agreed that Sixtus himself was of good character – when he died, says one chronicler, “all Rome wept for him” – but in secular affairs he was particularly inept. Sixtus attempted without success to temper the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition. He decreed a failed crusade against the Turks. He failed to get French King Louis XI to allow papal decrees to be published without royal consent. And he failed to reunite the Russian Church with Rome. It is true that Sixtus sponsored the building of the Sistine Chapel and Sistine Bridge, which are named for him, and revived the Vatican Library, opening it to scholars – but these were accomplished with nepotism, heavy taxation and simony. It is with this history in mind that historian Jacob Burckhardt calls this particular Pope, “the terrible Sixtus.”

Rev. John Flamsteed

Other birthdays and events this week—

August 6: British poet, and Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria’s reign, Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born (1809).

August 7: Pope Paul IV, newly elected and nearly 80, issued an Ecclesiastical Constitution making it an article of faith that Mary, the mother of Jesus, “was a virgin before, during, and after the conception and birth of her” son: Religion and Virginity (1555).

August 9: American cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky was born (1927).

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 my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.