William Pitt the Elder (1708) It was on this date, November 15, 1708, that "The Great Commoner," English statesman William Pitt the Elder, was born in London. After attending Oxford, Pitt stood for Parliament, where he attracted followers by opposing the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. He was a novel politician in a largely corrupt […]

Marquis de Condorcet (1743) It was on this date, September 17, 1743, that French mathematician and political philosopher Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, was born in Ribemont, Picardy, France. His father died early, so his mother, a very devout woman, had Condorcet educated at Jesuit Colleges in Reims and at the Collège […]

Freethinkers such as Voltaire in France and John Locke in England pushed back the night of superstition with the light of reason.

“The establishment of a new religion, whose ministers superceded the exercise of reason,” Gibbon wrote, supplanted Athenian wisdom and, “resolved every question by an article of faith, and condemned the infidel or skeptic to eternal flames."

Catharine said, "The people are not created for us, but we for the people" and "I am one of the imbeciles who believe in God."

To a census-taker, who asked him in 1872 if he was a Catholic, Hugo replied, "No. A Freethinker." Hugo predicted that Christianity would soon disappear, but men would still believe in God.

“But my doubt would not be overcome,” wrote Brandes. “Kierkegaard had declared that it was only to the consciousness of sin that Christianity was not horror or madness. For me it was sometimes both.”

To his intimates, Frederick admitted his Atheism. It was Frederick who said, "There are so many things to be said against religion that I wonder they do not occur to everyone."

As Dupont explained in his Philosophie de l'univers (1796), he was a Deist.

William Pitt the Elder (1708) It was on this date, November 15, 1708, that "The Great Commoner," English statesman William Pitt the Elder, was born in London. After attending Oxford, Pitt stood for Parliament, where he attracted followers by opposing the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. He was a novel politician in a largely corrupt […]