Boniface VIII Becomes Pope (1295) It was on this date, January 23, 1295, that Boniface VIII (Benedetto Gaetano) was made Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He was born about 1235 in Agnani, Italy, and served the papacy for many years as a canon lawyer. On the death of Nicholas IV, Celestine V, a pious […]

"All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few," Stendhal said. "The only excuse for God is that there is no such person."

Don’t long for the Golden Age of Freethought. The Golden Age is now!

The error was corrected from within the scientific community, so there is no cause for gloating from Creationists, who apparently believe, based on Genesis, that night and day were created before the sun was and the earth was created before the stars were.

“No kingdom has ever suffered as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ,” wrote Montesquieu. “I call piety a malady of the heart.”

“When a religion is good,” wrote Franklin, “I conceive it will support itself; and when ... its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”

“When a religion is good,” wrote Franklin, “I conceive it will support itself; and when ... its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”

"Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions."

Judge (Rev.) Samuel Sewall, who had presided at many trials in Salem, expressed a real fear of divine retribution, but the victims of the Salem Witch Trials would have been better off with less Jesus and more justice.

Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest... is worth enquiring into.