Thanks to Margaret Downey, President of the Freethought Society in Pennsylvania, my essay on naturalistic philosopher John Burroughs is included in their January/February newsletter.

The Light of Day: John Burroughs and a Freethinker’s Religion

An excerpt from Part One:

“What may capture the attention of contemporary freethinkers most is Burroughs’ somewhat novel naturalistic philosophy. Drawing from a range of study among his beloved birds, he presents us with his own migratory thoughts and philosophical peregrinations, ushering readers into wild areas usually left to professional philosophers and theologians. Burroughs brings his experienced scientific senses into a deep dialogue with explorers of ideas. With his naturalist’s eye wide open he treks about the great questions of life and the universe, drawing us into the constant flow of things, toward an acceptance of the cosmos and an emergence from the dark, ignorant past into the full sun of a clear day, hence his books Accepting the Universe and The Light of Day. He offers us a fundamentally positive hopefulness — something we can live with in the great house of the universe.”