The untold story of the feminist
movement is that it was sparked and nurtured by women without
superstition, by the religious nonconformists and liberals, the
unorthodox, the heretics, by the freethinking sceptics,
rationalists, agnostic and atheists.
Women of today owe an enormous debt
to the freethinking founders and foremothers of the women’s
movement who dared question and confront the religious status quo
which demand women’s silence, subjection, servitude and
unquestioning obedience. It is thanks to the freethinking women
who challenged religious sway over civil laws and practices that
women have the rights they possess today.
Women Without superstition is the
first compilation of the writings of women freethinkers and
sceptics. Most of these writings are out of print or generally
unavailable. It is likewise the first anthology to focus on the
freethinking writings of historic feminist leaders.
This is the first book that
highlights the freethinking views of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It
contains an exclusive "freethought reader sampling her
iconoclastic views on the harm of religion. Women Without
Superstition also reprints Stanton’s Major addresses on
religion, which have been out of print for a century or more and
have never been published in book form.
In addition to documenting the
criticism of religion by many feminists figures, Women Without
Superstition compiles the provocative, original, timely and
eloquent views of other freethinking women, past and present,
including social reformers, authors, leadersin the freethought
movement, as well as current feminists.
Also includes: a brief biographical
section on other historic women freethinkers and an appendix
including some historic documents on the struggle of Women versus
Church.
Quotations
from the Preface by Annie
Laurie Gaylor
"The title women Without
Superstition comes from the accolade given by the 19th
century’s most famous freethinker to his wife. Robert Green
Ingersoll dedicated his first book to Eva, "a woman without
superstition." Can there be greater praise?"
"‘No Gods – No Masters’
was the motto Margaret Sanger chose for her 1914 publication,
The Woman Rebel. Ever since encountering it I havae felt is
expressed in a nutshell the feminist viewpoint toward
patriarchal religion. ‘No Gods- No Masters’ gallantly
rejects the master/slave hierarchy of male power over women and
supernatural power over all humankind that is ordained in the
Jebrew and Christian testaments."
"The
pansy was chosen for the dust jacket of ‘Women
Without Superstition’
because
pansies at one time became a symbol of freethought ‘a
custom that ought to be revived’. The word comes from the
French ‘pensee’, meaning ‘thought’ or ‘fancy,’
from the verb penser, ‘to think’ The purple, yellow
and white colours on the dust jacket represent feminism since
these three colours were adopted by the American suffrage
movement. Though in Britain Green, White and Violet
(Purple) were used and among various reasons
put forward was code for Give Women the Vote."
"The "heretical"
thoughts and often eloquent writing of women without
superstition should not be forgotten in the musty corridors of a
new libraries. One should not have to spend hours of often
discouraging labor at the computer terminal, or tramp through
university libraries, or experience eyestrain infront of
microfilmed documents just to be able to read some of the views
of women freethinkers! Ideas and accomplishments, not just
names, should be remembered/ In many cases even their names have
been forgotten."
"The women’s movement has
not acknowledged the debt it owes to the unorthodox,
freethinking women in its ranks. Their nonreligious views often
have been suppressed, as if shameful, when in fact repudiation
of patriarchal religion is an essential step in freeing
women."Page xiii
"Reading only their ideas
without a context does not do justice to these women. Most are
or were activists and doers, movers and shakers, with lives as
fascinating as their writings. Finding biographical information
often was as daunting as locating their freethought writings,
therefore more background is offered than in the usual
anthology."
"This anthology would need
to be twice as long to include every woman who has, by her
unorthodoxy, contributed to freethought or feminism. Quakers and
Unitarian-Universalist women, as well as the modern feminist
theologians, popularisers of goddess worship and women’s
studies scholars have all made contributions in battling
patriarchal religion. These contributions for the most part,
have been recognised, whereas the contributions of women
freethinkers have been marginalized."
"There
are striking commonalities in the writings of women
freethinkers. Many were freethinkers who, to borrow my husband’s
metaphor, sprang up in comparative isolation like wildflowers,
whose reasoning, experiences, study of religion or reading of
the bible compelled them to reach the same conclusions about the
harm of religion to women, intellect or society, and to speak
out."
"The writers featured in
Women Without Superstition are freethinkers, not necessarily
atheists, although that label accurately describes many of them.
Freethought means the use of reason in forming opinions abut
religion, rather than basing belief on faith, authority or
tradition."
Annie Laurie Gaylor's definition
of religion – "a belief in a supernatural being who must
be worshipped and obeyed as the creator anf ruler of the
universe, whose dicta are found in so-called sacred writings.
Some use a looser definition applying it to any system of
philosophy or ethics, not necessarily the supernatural. Others
such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, turn the word on its head by
adopting Thomas Paine’s irreverent concept of a ‘religion of
humanity"
The word "'religion’ takes
on a sinister cast when one examines its root, religare, meaning
‘to bind’, which in turn means ‘to hold, to make prisoner,
to restrain."
"Women freethinkers have
worked to break the ties that bind women and restrain intellect.
They eschew superstition – a belief inconsistent with the
known laws of science and reason. Among the pioneers of social
change striving to move humankind forward, they have directed
their energies to this world, not toward an unseen, improvable
and unknowable one."
"Dominican Monk Jacob
Sprenger the infamous Witches Hammer handbook for killing women,
used twisted etymology to argue that the word ‘woman’ (femina)
literally means ‘faithless (condending fe=faith, mina =less)
"This can be turned into a compliment worthy of Col. Robert
Ingerson himself." [1]
