Thomas EdisonIn existographies, Thomas Edison (1847-1931) (IQ:185|#57) [RGM:38|1,500+] (Murray 4000:2|T) (Gottlieb 1000:28) (GEE:#) (FA:110) [CR:60] was an American electrical engineer, technologist, inventor, and philosopher; a milk and genius consumer; noted for his 1910 straight-from-shoulder answers to religious queries, in respect to his belief system, a subject about which scientists and engineers tend to be very taciturn.

Influences
Edison was influenced, particularly in respect to his critical opinions of religion, by Edward Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Thomas Paine's Age of Reason; to quote:

“I can still remember the flash of enlightenment that shone from its pages.”
— Thomas Edison (c.1915), reflection on Paine’s Age of Reason [4]

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NY Times | Immortality interview | 1910
See main: Edison on the soul
On 26 Aug 1910, noted reserve energy theorist and The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) author Harvard psychologist William James met his reaction end (died). Shortly thereafter, following alleged reports of the reappearance or ‘manifestation’ of James’ soul on earth, New York Times journalist Edward Marshall sought out Edison, then aged 63, to clarify the matter, the aim of which he explains as follows: “The newspapers have been teaming with the subject. The psychic researchers are even now quarreling bitterly over it. The public is puzzled. Therefore, I turned to Edison, who has solved for us so many puzzling problems. The existence of the soul, of life after death, has lately become largely a scientific question. Professor James, who, if not a confessed spiritualist, was very close to the boarder, worked wholly along scientific lines. No one has studied the minutiae of science with greater care than Edison. I determined, therefore, to find out what were his conclusions. And the result , as I have said, was amazing, fascinating.” [1]

Other
Edison’s only foods were milk and the occasional glass of orange juice (see: milk and genius). [2]

Quotes | By
The following are quotes by Edison:

“My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it.”
— Thomas Edison (c.1910), “Do We Live Again”? (Ѻ)

“So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake. Religion is all bunk.”
— Thomas Edison (c.1910), in FSM app [3]

“The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if one will only take the pains to train the mind to think.”
— Thomas Edison (c.1915), Publication (Ѻ)

See also
Goethe on the soul

References
1. Marshall, Edward. (1910). “No Immortality of the Soul Says Thomas A. Edison” (Ѻ) (pdf), Interview, The New York Times, Oct 2.
2. Pickover, Clifford A. (1998). Strange Brains and Genius: the Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madman (pg. 70). Quill.
3. Azbell, Frederick J. (2010). Organized Religion is Blind Leading the Blind (pg. 116). Author House.
4. (a) Josephson, Matthew. (1959). Edison: a Biography (pg. 438). McGraw-Hill.
(b) Hecht, Jennifer M. (2003). Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas (pg. 435). HarperOne.

Further reading
● Israel, Paul. (2000). Edison: A Life of Invention (pg. 9). Wiley & Sons.

External links
Thomas Edison – Wikipedia.

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