.

Freethought of the Day

July 4, 2009 There are 4 entries for this date: Declaration of Independence , Francis Wright, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Kay Nolte Smith., and

#

"Declaration of Independence"

On this date in 1776, Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence" was signed. Its secular purpose was to "dissolve the political bands," and it inaugurated the anti-biblical idea that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Jefferson was a Deist who was highly critical of Christianity, and whose revolutionary document made references to a "Nature's God."

#

Frances Wright

On this date in 1828, freethinker Frances Wright became the first woman to speak publicly from the podium as the featured speaker, before a mixed audience of men and women, in North America. At age 34, Wright delivered the July 4 address at New Harmony, Indiana.

#

Giuseppe Garibaldi

On this date in 1807, Giuseppe Garibaldi was born. Although his father wanted him to be a priest, Garibaldi set out to sea as a youth. He took part in the conspiracy of 1834, for which he was forced to flee from Italy. After adventurous travels, the famed Italian compatriot took a major role in work to emancipate Italy from outside rule. After the failed revolution of 1848, he traveled to America. He returned with a band of revolutionaries in 1859, then again in 1862 and 1870. He was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1872. Garibaldi called the Vatican "the Sacred Shop," and rejected all creeds. D. 1882.

“Dear Friends, -- Man has created God; not God man. -- Yours ever, Garibaldi.”

-- Giuseppe Garibaldi, letter, 1880, cited by Joseph McCabe,A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists

“ The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy. ”

-- Giuseppe Garibaldi's letter to Charles Darwin, cited by Jim Haught in 2000 Years of Disbelief

#

Kay Nolte Smith

On this date in 1932, Kay Nolte Smith was born in Minnesota. She received her B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1952 and her Master's degree in theater and speech from the University of Utah in 1955. She married Prof. Philip Smith in 1958. She and her husband went into professional theatre together, co-producing Ayn Rand's "Penthouse Legend." She made TV commercials, performed off Broadway for a decade, joined several faculties as a teacher, then turned her energies to writing. Her first novel, Watcher (1980), won the Edgar Allen Poe award, followed by Mindspell (1983), Country of the Heart (1988), and Tale of the Wind (1991). Mindspell delved into the witchhunts. After her research for that book, Kay asserted that records of this heinous time should be "mandatory reading in every Sunday school. This is what made me an atheist. Consider how deeply witch craze was rooted in religion. The papal sanction was not abolished for six centuries. How can anyone belong to a church that treated its members this way?" (Feminist Connection interview, December 1983). D. 1993.

“The tragedy is that every brain cell devoted to belief in the supernatural is a brain cell one cannot use to make life richer or easier or happier.”

-- Kay Nolte Smith, "Truth or Consequences," speech to the Freedom From Religion Foundation 1983 national convention. See “Women Without Superstition “

(The link for this particular page may only open for it, on the 4th.

Thereafter you may need to go to the 4th, on it’s calendar)

http://www.ffrf.org/day/

.

.

There are 3 entries for this date: Aleksandr Pushkin, Benjamin Underwood and Frida Kahlo.

On this date in 1799, Aleksandr Pushkin was born in Moscow. Born into a poor, aristocratic family, Pushkin saw his first poem published at age 14. He joined the foreign office in 1817, but was banished to South Russia as a young man for radical poetry that also satirized religion, such as "Ode to Liberty." He was permitted to return to his mother's estate and then to St. Peterburg after several years. Pushkin's epics include "Ruslan and Ludmila" (1820), "Boris Gudenov" (1831), and "Evgenii Onegin" (1833). He returned to a government position in 1831, and founded a review publication in 1836. He died fighting a duel over his young wife in 1837. Pushkin's complete works were published in 12 volumes. A rationalist admirer of Voltaire, the deistic writer is considered the founder of Russian literature. D. 1837.

On this date in 1839, Benjamin Underwood was born in New York City, the second of seven children. Largely self-educated, he served in the Civil War and was imprisoned at Richmond after being wounded in the right leg. After being released through a prisoner exchange program, Underwood reinlisted and served through the war, receiving a commendation for bravery in action. After working as a reporter, lecturer and author, Underwood became a noted promoter of Darwin and evolution. He was appointed co-editor, with William J. Potter, of the Index in 1881, a weekly newspaper founded by a Unitarian. In 1887, the atheist founded The Open Court in Chicago, a well-respected journal which published the writings of many freethinkers. Underwood wrote, lectured and debated as a major 19th century advocate for the freethought movement. His books include The Influence of Christianity on Civilization (1871) and The Crimes and Cruelties of Christianity (1877). Underwood chaired the "Congress of Evolution" at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. Underwood was a supporter of feminism. His wife, Sara Underwood, wrote Heroines of Freethought (1876). D. 1914.

On this date in 1907, Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico, the daughter of an immigrant Jewish father and a Mexican/indigenous Roman Catholic mother. Her painting career was born of pain and boredom during a lengthy convalescence following impalement in a horrific streetcar accident. The 18-year-old suffered a broken spine and pelvis, 11 leg fractures and a crushed foot, but learned to walk again. Frida famously married painter Diego Rivera in 1929 and divorced him for infidelity in 1940. They remarried the next year. Diego encouraged her to adopt her trademark, colorful Mexican garb. The strikingly beautiful woman also boasted a trademark "unibrow," which she meticulously documented in her many self-portraits. Kahlo was a self-professed atheist who sometimes wove blasphemous themes into her surreal paintings. She depicted herself, for instance, as a secular, medical martyr. Unhappy with U.S. values during an extended stay there in the 1930s, she painted a montage of images that included a dollar sign wrapped across the cross on a church. She mixed Christian and Aztec images in some paintings. Frida once referred to Diego as the second major accident of her life. The tempestuous radicals were always controversial in private and public lives. Although Frida was rumored to have had a love affair with the exiled Trotsky, she painted an adulatory picture in 1954 called "Stalin and I." Her accident was a lifelong disability, forcing her to have more than 30 operations and causing immense pain. Shortly before her death, her right leg had to be amputated below the knee. She died at 47, probably of her own hand. The New York Times obituary reported that she was believed to be the first woman to sell a painting to the Louvre. Actress Salma Hayek fought hard to bring to life the movie "Frida" (2002), in which she portrayed the artist and acted as a co-producer. D. 1954.

http://www.ffrf.org/day/