America’s secular heritage begins with the founding of the country in the late 1700′s. While 200 years may seem like a long time ago, it’s a blink compared to the history of secularism that has threaded through most civilizations over the past 3,000 years.
Freethought is by no means an American invention. It appeared in various guises as far back as ancient Middle East, Greece, India, and China. Gautama Buddha in India in the 6th century BCE spoke of the respect for uncertainty and doubt, warning his followers not to accept anything based merely on tradition or authority.
Thucydides, Anaxagoras, and Theodorus of Cyrene were famous ancient Greek secularists. There is also speculation that Digenes and Socrates were nonbelievers. Secularist Romans included Cicero, Horace, Lucretius, Seneca, and the skeptical philosopher Sextus Empiricus. It’s interesting to note that Romans called everyone who weren’t their religion “atheists,” including Jews and the early Christians.
Persian (Iranian) Omar Khayyam (1048-1123 AD), a first-generation Muslim and well-known mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and poet, was not devout and expressed his doubts publicly about divine intervention.
During the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci was one of the biggest opponents of acceptance of the authority of the Church. It’s generally agreed that the modern period of Freethought began with the death in 1600 of Italian theologian and writer Giordano Bruno, who traveled throughout Europe writing and lecturing on secular topics. He was finally arrested by the Inquisition and spent seven years in prison in Rome before being burned at the stake for his atheist beliefs.
Atheism and skepticism emerged during the Middle Ages in Europe as universities began to grow independent from the control of the Catholic Church. Chaucer, Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, and William of Occam helped reawaken the belief in reason and an interest in science, although none were atheists.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Freethought became popular in England, France, Germany, and other European countries. During that time, America was well on its way to being settled by Europeans fleeing religious persecution or looking for a better life and African slaves, indentured servants, and prisoners sent to this new land against their will.
By the late 1700′s, the 13 English colonies were ready to split from British tyranny and strike out as a new country founded on human reason and secular humanist, not religious, principles. The founding fathers made their intentions clear on the importance of keeping church and state separate.
In the mid 1800′s, a large number of well-educated, German freethinkers and anti-clericalists emigrated to the US, Canada, and Australia following the 1848 European revolutions for democratic reform and human rights. Known as Forty-Eighters, these people, many of whom were Jewish, hoped to be able to follow their beliefs without governmental or church interference. Many settled in immigrant communities in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Wisconsin, and the Texas hill country.
Freethought had it’s heyday in American society after the Civil War, from about 1875 to 1914, The most notable freethinker of the time was Robert Green Ingersoll, who gave well-attended, popular speeches around the country. A number of Freethought periodicals were also published.
But as the country experienced growing pains, schisms between the secular and religious opened up. Many looked for connections to God to be more visible in society. They wanted a tidy world of moral absolutes and a comfortable sense that a thread of religious belief bound everyone together with the same sense of virtue. And so secularist influence receded as atheists and freethinkers were censored by regulations and laws meant to silence them.
In the 20th century, skirmishes continued on may fronts between those who wanted to place the Christian God front and center in the workings of everyday public life and those who understood the continuing relevance of freedom in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. That divide continues.
For a richly detailed, clearly written accounting of freethought in America, read Susan Jacoby’s Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.
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