Freethought of the Day

Would you like to start your day on a freethought note? "Freethought of the Day" is a daily freethought calendar brought to you courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, highlighting birthdates, quotes, and other historic tidbits.

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February 24

There are 3 entries for this date: George Augustus Moore , Grant Allen and Steve Jobs (Quote)

George Augustus Moore

On this date in 1852, prolific novelist George Augustus Moore was born into a Roman Catholic family in Ballyglass, County Mayo, Ireland. He was educated at a Catholic college, but jettisoned his faith in Paris, where he went at 18 to study art, as described in Flowers of Passion (1877). His 1883 novel, A Modern Lover, was barred by some libraries. In The Apostle, the author depicted Paul murdering Jesus after finding him alive many years following his alleged "resurrection." The preface is "a charmingly free study of the bible," according to freethought historian Joseph McCabe (A Biographical Dictionary of Rationalists, 1920). Ester Waters (1891) is about a nun who gives birth to a son. In Brook Kerith (1916), what McCabe called "his beautiful rationalized version of the life of Christ," Moore described Jesus as an Essenian monk, for which the Catholic Church attempted to prosecute him. His "whole work," including his autobiography, Hail and Farewell (3 vol., 1911-14), "is pagan," according to McCabe. Moore's nonfiction includes Reminiscences of the Impressionist Painters (1906). His Collected Works (1924) is 21 volumes. Moore was instrumental in the Irish Renaissance. D. 1933.

“Women have never invented a religion; they are untainted with that madness, and they are not moralists.”

—George Augustus Moore, Confessions of a Young Man (1888), cited in 2,000 Years of Disbelief by James R. Haught

Grant Allen

On this date in 1848, Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was born in Canada. The versatile and prolific author of nonfiction and fiction was well-known to famous contemporaries. The son of a minister, Allen studied at the College Imperial of Dieppe, the King Edward's School of Birmingham, and Oxford University. He taught at a college for Blacks at Spanish Town, Jamaica, for four years, where his agnostic and other progressive views matured. He returned to England and began writing books. His well-regarded Physiological Aesthetics (1877) was dedicated to Herbert Spencer. Other books include Vignettes from Nature (1881), The Evolutionist at Large (1881), The Colours of Flowers (1882), and The Evolution of the Idea of God (1897). Admirers included Huxley and Darwin. Allen's later writings were mostly guidebooks and novels. The Hand of God, a collection of essays, was published posthumously in 1909 by the Rationalist Press Association. D. 1899.

“ . . . the vast mass of existing gods or divine persons, when we come to analyze them, do actually turn out to be dead and deified human beings. . . . I believe that corpse worship is the protoplasm of religion.”

—Grant Allen, cited in Who's Who in Hell edited by Warren Allen Smith

Steve Jobs (Quote)

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.”

—Steve Jobs, born Feb. 24, 1955, died Oct. 5, 2011, CEO and cofounder of Apple Computer, giving the 2005 c

Compiled by Eleanor Wroblewski