Freethought of the Day: James Fenimore Cooper

[beam me up scottie]

James Fenimore Cooper

On this date in 1789, James Cooper (later known as James Fenimore Cooper) was born in Burlington, N.J. He briefly attended Yale College, and in 1808 joined the U.S. Navy. Cooper is best known for writing The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826), an extremely popular novel focusing on the involvement of the Mohicans, a Native American tribe, in the French and Indian War. The novel was made into films in 1920, 1932, 1936, 1963 and 1992, as well as TV series in 1977, 1975 and 1987. It was also adapted into a BBC radio series in 1995, and an opera in 1976. The Last of the Mohicans was the second book in Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales series, which included four other novels. Cooper wrote over 50 more books in various genres, including The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea (1824), the nonfiction The Chronicles of Cooperstown (1838), and American war novel The Spy (1821). He married Susan Augusta DeLancey in 1811, and the couple had seven children. D. 1851

"Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical relation to each other."

—James Fenimore Cooper

https://ffrf.org/news/day/15/09/freethought/#james-fenimore-cooper

I loved his Leatherstocking Tales when I was a kid.

[saidsimplesimon]

1. Thank you, scottie

Just a bit off topic on my part. Any mention of the word "Free" reminds me of Ayn Rand and her extreme libertarian views. From the custom auto plates in AZ that parrot the freedom meme, they are not free but slaves to an ideology.

[beam me up scottie]

2. That's understandable but in this context it's quite liberal.

Freethought of the Day

"Freethought of the Day" is a daily freethought calendar brought to you courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, highlighting birthdates, quotes, and other historic tidbits.

https://ffrf.org/news/day

The FFRF probably went with the word 'Freethought' because they're freethinkers:

What Is A Freethinker? - By Dan Barker

free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists.

No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.

https://ffrf.org/component/k2/item/18391-what-is-a-freethinker

And you're welcome, ss!

[Voltaire2]

4. Rand was not a free thinker. In fact and practice

she was a closed minded authoritarian bigot.

[saidsimplesimon]

6. A bit late scottie

Instead of "the day music died", let me post another blast from my past. Just in case my new improved VPN software does not like You Tube, The lyrics for "Me and My Bobbie Magee"/ "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose."

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[northoftheborder]

3. Free Thinkers in Texas

Several small towns in central Texas were founded by "free thinkers", even have statues commemorating this history. Now of course, they are mostly all Republicans.

[beam me up scottie]

5. They have forgotten the faces of their fathers.

Gratuitous Dark Tower reference.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

7. Leatherstocking Tales are SOOOOOOO good.

I'm like SQUEEE! Maybe we're soul mates. That Cooper is a freethinker just makes it all better. Side note: John Greene, in one of his videos on Romanticism, refers to him as James Fenimore Pooper, and that makes me chuckle every time. I'm a middle school boy at heart.