Victor-Marie Hugo (February 26, 1802 - May 1885). According to Wikipedia; Hugo was a Humanist "French poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France. In France his literary reputation rests on his poetic and dramatic output. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Legende des siecles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. In the English-speaking world his best-known works are often the novels Les Miserables and Notre-Dame de Paris (sometimes translated into English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
"Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he evolved into a non-practicing Catholic, and expressed increasingly violent anti-papist and anti-clerical views. He dabbled in Spiritualism during his exile, and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. When a census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, he replied, 'No. A Freethinker.'"
Today is also the birthday of atheist Claude Adrien Helvetius (February 26, 1715 - December 26, 1771). According to Wikipedia, "Helvetius was a French philosopher and litterateur.... His philosophical studies ended in the production of his famous book De l'esprit (On Mind) published in 1758. The book was considered to be heretical, so atheistic that it was condemned by Church and State and was burned."
Finally, today is the anniversary of the death of Freethinker William Melvin Hicks, better known as Bill Hicks (December 16, 1961 - February 26, 1994). According to Wikipedia; Hicks "was a controversial American stand-up comedian, satirist, and social critic."
