Joseph Lewis
Overview
 
Joseph Lewis was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 freethinker
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...

 and atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

 who was born in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

. At the age of nine he left school to find employment and became mostly self-educated. Lewis developed his ideas from reading, among others, Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic."-Life and career:Robert Ingersoll was born in Dresden, New York...

 and Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...

.

In 1920, Lewis moved to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 where he became the president of Freethinkers of America (a title he would keep for the rest of his life). He later started his own publishing company, the Freethought Press Association, where he published literature about freethought written by himself and others.
Quotations

A precept claiming infallibility should certainly possess the universality of the law of gravitation and the perfection of the arithmetical table. If it fails to possess these undeviating qualities, its imperfection is self-evident and its value either greatly diminished or useless.

The Ten Commandments

If Atheism writes upon the blackboard of the Universe a question mark, it writes it for the purpose of stating that there is a question yet to be answered. Is it not better to place a question mark upon a problem while seeking an answer than to put the label "God" there and consider the matter solved? Does not the word "God" only confuse and make more difficult the solution by assuming a conclusion that is utterly groundless and palpably absurd?

The Philosophy of Atheism

Facts and not merely opinions are what we want. Emotionalism is not a substitute for the truth.

The Philosophy of Atheism

Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves God more than he loves his fellow man.

An Atheist Manifesto

As superstition is the weed of the brain, it grows perfusely, once started.

The Ten Commandments

Praying as a public function, particularly when led by a clergyman, is a vulgar display of an exclusively personal matter.

Ingersoll the Magnificent (Memorial Dedication Address, August 11, 1954)

Of the ten crimes which Biblical Hebrew law punished by stoning, nine have ceased to be offenses in modern society.

The Ten Commandments ("The Eighth Commandment")

Imagine using as an authority in the matter of marriage the opinion of a celibate priest!

The Philosophy of Atheism

When the tyranny of the state is combined with the hypocrisy of the church, you have a modern example of the twin vultures that have devoured man, and his rights, throughout the ages.

Ingersoll the Magnificent (Memorial Dedication Address, August 11, 1954)

On too many occasions, especially in matters concerning purported conversations and messages from gods, mystery has been employed by charlatans to hoodwink the people.

The Ten Commandments

 
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