In existographies, Hubert Harrison (1883-1927) (GBG:5) (FA:128) was an African-American writer, aka “black atheist” (Jackson, 1987) and or “black Socrates” (Hecht, 2003), known as an “intellectual giant”, noted for []
Atheism | Agnosticism
Harrison’s main intellectual hero was Thomas Paine; who was well-read in the works of Galileo, Rene Descartes, Newton, David Hume, Benedict Spinoza, Denis Diderot, Jean d’Alembert, Voltaire, and Baron d’Holbach. [1]
Education
Harrison, as a teen worked as an under-teacher of a school, in his young adulthood he worked menial jobs by day, e.g. a post office worker, earned a high school degree, and read voraciously. [1]
Quotes | By
The following are noted quotes by Harrison:
“I prefer to go to the grave with my eyes open.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [1]
“Everyone knows about the many errors in the Bible, except in America.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [2]
“African Americans with agnostic views are rare, and these are seldom, if ever, openly avowed. I am inclined to believe that freedom of thought must come from freedom of circumstances.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [2]
“It should seem that Negros, of all Americans, would be found in the ‘free thought’ fold, since they have suffered more than any other class of Americans from the dubious blessings of Christianity. The church saw to it that the religion taught to slaves should stress the servile virtues of subservience and content. It was the Bible that constituted the divine sanction of this ‘peculiar institution’.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [2]
“These French deists made certain false premise which we smile at today; the believed in keeping monotheism, but fixing it, which is absurd.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [1]
“I am agnostic; not a dogmatic disbeliever nor a bumptious and narrow infidel. I am not at all of the Col. Ingersoll’s school. I am agnostic such as Huxley was.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [1]
“I wish to admit here something that most agnostics are unwilling to admit, namely that reason alone has failed to satisfy all my needs. For there are needs, not merely ethical but spiritual, inspirational, and these also must be filled.”
— Hubert Harrison (c.1920) [2]
References
1. Hecht, Jennifer M. (2003). Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas (pg. 435-39). HarperOne.
2. Huberman, Jack. (2007). The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and those Generally Hell-Bound (Hubert Harrison, pg. #). Nation Books.
External links
● Hubert Harrison – Wikipedia.
