A democratic organization supporting separation of state and church, and promoting understanding and acceptence of atheism and freethought in our community

A democratic organization supporting separation of state and church,understanding and acceptence of atheism 

and freethought in our community

AOF Events Calendar

March 2024
S M T W T F S
25 26 27 28 29 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 1 2 3 4 5 6

Upcoming Events

2024 Mar 19, 12:00AM
Equinox (March)
(Secular Holiday)

2024 Mar 23, 12:00AM
Atheist Coming-Out Day
(Secular Holiday)

2024 Mar 31, 02:00PM - 04:00PM
Love Is Not What You Think
(General Meeting)

2024 Apr 01, 12:00AM
April Fool's Day
(Secular Holiday)

2024 Apr 12, 12:00AM
Yuri's Night, or Cosmonauts Day
(Secular Holiday)

2024 Apr 15, 12:00AM
Ask An Atheist Day
(Secular Holiday)

2024 Apr 22, 12:00AM
Earth Day
(Secular Holiday)

2024 May 01, 12:00AM
National Day of Reason
(Secular Holiday)

2024 May 14, 07:00PM - 08:00PM
Board of Directors Meeting
(Planning Meeting)

2024 May 25, 12:00AM
Towel Day
(Secular Holiday)

Inspirational Words of Famous Freethinkers

Don't faint to hear this, but you do not require religion for inspiration, you do not need the supernatural to be spiritual.  Why should you? Inspiration and spirit come from the Anglo Saxon inspiren and old Latin inspīrāre, which simply means, "to breathe." So right at the start these were metaphors for life itself, the quality of being more than rocks and trees. We breathe, rocks don't. What's more natural than that?

Even today the secular meaning remains: team spirit, school spirit, the Spirit of '76. But religion managed to co-opt or absorb the words, until many assume they mean the supernatural by default, something magical, beyond the world, beyond life.

We say, not so. Because the world is everything. And everything is inspiration enough for anyone.

This page highlights the inspiring, yes the spiritual thought and work of just a few great freethinkers. This barely grazes the surface. Freethought has an immensely rich spiritual history. Visit the links and sub-links, then to learn more, see the Celebrity Atheists List or Mark Gilbert's List of Famous Dead Nontheists. Happy exploring!

 

Robert Green IngersollRobert Green Ingersoll was a prominent 19th century progressive, fearless agnostic, freethinker, prolific author, and the greatest American orator.  [The Works of Ingersoll]  [More Ingersoll]  [The Robert Ingersoll Museum]  [Great Quotes]  [Why he was an Agnostic]  [Life Chronology]  [His Facebook Page]  [His Myspace Page]

Read some of his cool writings here, and here.
 

Clarence Darrow Clarence Darrow: How does one begin to explain this paradox, this sophisticated country lawyer, this hedonistic defender of the poor and downtrodden, this honest, devious man?  [Clarence Darrow at the Sacred Texts Archive]  [Quotes]  [Darrow on Facebook]
 
For Clarence Darrow writings, try this link, and try this one.
 

Mark Twain Mark Twain, the most famous American author during his life, was an outspoken critic of religion and human folly, and damn funny.  [Mark Twain at the Sacred Texts Archive]  [Twainquotes]
 
 Mark Twain's words await you on this page and this one.
 

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine, the "First American patriot," was a founding father, advocate for freedom and voice of the common man, who pledged his life to taking down political and religious idols.  [Thomas Paine on Religion]  [His great writings] [The Tom Paine Historical Association] [Audio Lecture on Paine]
 

 

Voltaire Voltaire: His birth-name François-Marie Arouet; he was a French writer, satirist, deist, the embodiment of the 18th-century Enlightenment, and a crusader against tyranny and bigotry.  [Voltaire Quotes]  [His religion]
 
 

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein did not call himself an atheist or even an agnostic, but rejected conventional religion and the idea of a personal God, and found a spirituality in the cosmos itself, the "God of Spinoza" as he said, a form of pantheism.  [Einstein and Religion]  [Einstein Quotes on Religion]  [More on Einstein and Faith] [Letter to philosopher Erik Gutkind, 1954]
 

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov, a brilliant mind and Renaissance man, wrote over 500 books that enlightened, entertained, and spanned the realm of human knowledge, covering 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. He was an atheist, but deeply proud of his Jewish heritage.  [Asimov and Religion]  [Asimov Quotes]
 

 

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic, advocate for human rights and social justice, founder of modern analytical philosophy, and known for his work in mathematical logic.  [Russell on Religion]  [Russell: Why I am Not a Christian]
 

Carl Sagan Carl Sagan, American astronomer and astrophysicist, science popularizer, skeptic and author, was an enthusiastic advocate for skeptical inquiry and the scientific method.  [Sagan on Religion]  [More Sagan Quotes]
 

 

Richard Dawkins

Interested in Richard Dawkins?  Let us tell you about Dawkins!  [His quotes]  [More]  [The Dawkins Foundation]

 

 

Susan B. Anthony Susan Brownell Anthony, the near-legendary American civil rights leader, abolitionist and suffragist, born a Quaker, internalized many Quaker ideals but joined the Unitarian church, finding it more progressive and open to "hard questions" on faith.  [Susan Anthony Quotes]  [Her Religion]
 
 

Butterfly McQueen Butterfly McQueen: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" Who can forget the words of maid Prissy from Gone With the Wind? The actress, Butterfly McQueen, was a confirmed atheist and a life member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.  [Biography] [Butterly McQueen - her story]
 
 

Luther Burbank Luther Burbank, famed botonist, horticulturist and philanthropist, was a spiritual unbeliever who revered nature. Clergy called him an "infidel."  [Burbank the Infidel]  [Luther Burbank Quotes]  [Burbank Speaks]
 
 

Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger, d. 1966, American educator and feminist, and still a hotbutton to many, believed that women with access to birth control will be more likely to produce fit children. She did not support active euthenasia or eugenics -- never mind the myths!  [Quotes]  [More Quotes]  [Writings]  ["Ebb and Flow of Misery"]
 

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson needs no introduction, but less known is that he was a skeptical deist who amended the Gospels to omit all miracles.  [Jefferson's Writings]  [Jefferson on Religion]  [Quotes on Liberty & Faith]  [The Jefferson Bible]
 
 

Hypatia Hypatia (Greek, Ὑπατία), born circa AD 360, a freethinking pagan woman, taught in ancient Alexandria, incurred a bishop's jealously, and met a bloody end. "Revered Hypatia, ornament of learning, stainless star of wise teaching, when I see thee and thy discourse I worship thee, looking on the starry house of Virgo; for thy business is in heaven." -- Palladas, the Greek Anthology.  [Life and Legacy]  [Bio]  [Hypatia on Facebook]