Read about Skeptic Society founder Michael Shermer, French statesman Cardinal Richelieu, evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould, Cosmonaut Gherman S. Titov, Bard of Baltimore H. L. Mencken, Roger Williams and freedom of conscience, feminist Margaret Sanger and more …

Read about Alan M. Dershowitz, the Great Fire of London, philosopher John McTaggart, African-American poet Richard Wright, the Reign of Terror and the churches, biblical critic Bruno Bauer, Queen Elizabeth I and more …

It was on this date, September 6, 1809, that German philosopher, historian and Biblical critic Bruno Bauer was born at Eisenberg in Saxe-Altenburg. Bauer studied in Berlin and came under the influence of Georg W. F. Hegel (1770-1831). He began teaching in Berlin, but was transferred in 1839 to the University of Bonn after publishing […]

It was on this date, September 3, 1866, that British idealist metaphysician John McTaggart was born John McTaggart Ellis in London. The family dropped the name Ellis, so he attended Clifton College, Bristol, and Trinity College, Cambridge, as John McTaggart, studying under Henry Sidgwick and James Ward and taking First Class honors in Moral Sciences […]

Read about forging the Shroud of Turin, American feminist activist Barbara Ehrenreich, Confucius, philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, writer Maurice Maeterlinck, investor Warren Buffet, scientist Hermann von Helmholtz and more …

Shroud of Turin (1978) It was on this date, August 25, 1978, that the famous Shroud of Turin, still venerated as the burial cloth of the crucified Jesus, went on public display for the first time in 45 years. Since 1578 the shroud, or sindon, has been housed at Turin, where it is only displayed […]

Read about the King of Siam’s Eclipse, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft, What is a saint?, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, What is a church?, comedian Stephen Fry and more …

Read about the Great Agnostic Robert Ingersoll, Spanish dramatist Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, Cuban revolutionist Fidel Castro, American writer Russell Baker, French political theorist Pierre Sylvain Maréchal, American film director James Cameron, topless Femen activists fighting the patriarchy and more …

Read about Percy Bysshe Shelley, Guy de Maupassant, Asia Carrera, James “The Amazing” Randi, Christian Communion, Sixtus IV, Churches v. Astronomy and more …

Read about political philosopher Karl Popper, Galileo’s persecutor Urban VIII, publisher E. Haldeman-Julius, the “Age of Chivalry,” science writer James Gleick, black activist and social critic James Baldwin, Edwardian poet Rupert Brooke and more …