Friday, January 13, 2012

George Holyoake

Dear bloggers... I must apologize to you right now. I started my blog about secular belief without even mentioning the man who started it. So sorry. I am crying... moving on, without further ado: George Holyoake
Holyoake was born in 1817 in England, and became someone worth mentioning around 1842, when he was sent to jail. Okay, let me backtrack... Holyoake began contributing to a journal named the "Oracle of Reason" which was extremely critical (by the standards of his time) of the English Church. This did not bode well with the Anglical church (which was taken much more seriously than it is today) and he was charged with "condemning Christianity".
...6 months later...
Holyoake gets out of prison, and is understandably not pleased with what had happened. Apparently he did not consult his lawyer, because he was soon writing his own journal named "The Movement" about political and social issues. This journal eventually became "The Reasoner" and was the medium by which he gained his fame and also the reason why you are reading about him right now. Early in the 1850's he began further criticizing the church and claiming that it should be replaced by something more reasonable (like science and reason). What is this movement away from religion called? Secularism. That's right, without this great man, there would be no blog. Or perhaps this blog would exist, but it would probably be called something like "A Beginner's Guide to Ethics That Deal With Reason and Science as Opposed to Religious Belief". Somehow, it just doesn't roll off of the tongue as well.

This is the main reason why you need to know about him. The last noteworthy accomplishment Holyoake made was a book called "A History of Co-operation In England" which dealt with making business more democratic and less authoritative. That lies well beyond the reach of this blog and the tired fingers of this blogger.

10 comments:

  1. Your really are a fountain of knowledge!

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  2. :D Yeah Carl is right.
    Amazing how much you know!

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  3. Ethics are incredibly interesting. What is right and wrong after all! Now following an interesting user!

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  4. Funny how suppression of criticism serves only to strengthen dissent (funnier still is how this lesson has been repeated ad nauseum throughout history with no end in sight).

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  5. Agree with Alex. Can't wait for more.

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