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.
To receive Freethought of the Day in your email inbox, login to update your email subscriptions.
On this date in 1810, Horace Seaver was born in Boston. At age 28, he became a compositor at The Boston Investigator and learned the craft of printing. Seaver also began writing editorials under the name "Z." The Investigator had been launched in 1830 by Abner Kneeland as a weekly, becoming the most effective and prominent freethought newspaper in the U.S., continuously published until 1904 when it merged with The Truth Seeker. When Kneeland, who had been prosecuted for blasphemy more than once, resigned, Seaver was selected to become its editor.
He edited the paper for the next half-century, promoting freethought, the working class and other secular reforms. He wrote Occasional Thoughts of Horace Seaver from Fifty Years of Free Thinking (1888). When his freethinking wife died, Seaver held a "social funeral," an innovative model of the modern secular memorial service. When Seaver himself died, his funeral oration was given by the great 19th-century freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll. D. 1889.
“We have secured some political freedom — I mean for such of us as have white complexions and are sound in the faith — but with regard to mental freedom, we are to the present hour almost literally in bondage to this potent spell, Authority. Men and women really dare not think for themselves, because they are fearful of some book or some church, some sect or some creed, that stands in the way.”
—Remarks by Seaver at the Free Convention in Rutland, Vermont (July 21, 1858)
Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor
© Freedom From Religion Foundation. All rights reserved.
On this date in 1962, freethinker and feminist Taslima Nasrin was born in Mymensing, Bangladesh, to a Sufi physician and a devoutly religious mother. Nasrin later became the target of a series of fatwas, or religious sanctions, condemning her to death for blasphemy.
“I came to suspect that the Quran was not written by Allah but, rather, by some selfish, greedy man who wanted only his own comfort,” Taslima explained in her speech accepting a Freethought Heroine Award at the 25th annual FFRF convention in 2002. “So I stopped believing in Islam. When I studied other religions, I found they, too, oppressed women.” She has often stated, "Religion is the great oppressor and should be abolished."
Nasrin earned an MBBS (a type of medical degree) in 1984, and worked in gynecology and anesthesiology departments in medical colleges and universities. Her books of poetry began being published in the late 1980s. She then started writing popular columns on women’s rights in newspapers and magazines, which were collected in book form.
In 1992, she received the prestigious Indian literary award “Ananda” for her book of essays. Nasrin reports that Islamic fundamentalists started campaigns against her by 1990, with demonstrations escalating over the next few years, including having her books burned at the national book fair.
Her novella “Shame” about the plight of Hindus under Muslim order was banned when it came out in 1993. She was attacked at the national book fair and the first of three fatwas was issued with a bounty on her head. The Bangladeshi government brought criminal charges against her in 1994 for defaming the Muslim faith. Thousands demonstrated regularly, sometimes daily, demanding her death. After a terrifying two months in hiding and fearing the fate of Hypatia, Nasrin fled Bangladesh, seeking refuge in Sweden.
In a 1994 interview with The New Yorker, she said, “I want a modern, civilized law where women are given equal rights. I want no religious law that discriminates, none, period — no Hindu law, no Christian law, no Islamic law. Why should a man be entitled to have four wives? Why should a son get two-thirds of his parents’ property when a daughter can inherit only a third?”
Nasrin, a “woman without a country,” has also lived in France, the U.S. and Germany, living for the most part in India.
Among the dozens of awards and honorary doctorates she has received is the Sakharov Prize (1994). She gave an acceptance speech before the From Religion Foundation when receiving its 2002 Freethought Heroine Award and again in 2015 while accepting the Emperor Has No Clothes Award, where she said “Islam is not compatible with human rights, women’s rights, freedom of expression and democracy.” She has continued to lecture, speak out and write, including a multi-book autobiography.
PHOTO BY INGRID LAAS
“I don't believe in God. I’m an atheist, and I believe religion is totally against human rights and women’s rights.”
—Nasrin, The Atheist Newsletter (No. 53, July 1995)
Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor
© Freedom From Religion Foundation. All rights reserved.