Minnesota Atheists talk

05/21/2013 15:01

I took a couple of days away from farmwork over the weekend, and visited the Twin Cities for the first time in a decade. The Minnesota Atheists invited me to speak about Dr. Charles Knowlton and my new book An Infidel Body-Snatcher and the Fruits of His Philosophy at their monthly meeting. The meeting was well-attended, and nearly everyone had comments or questions after the talk. Just the type of audience a speaker hopes for! And I sold quite a few books.

In the morning before the meeting, I had a chance to do a live Atheist Talk radio interview with Scott Lohman, the President of Humanists of Minnesota. This was my first experience with live radio, but I think it went pretty well. You can stream the program here, and I think the audio will also be posted on iTunes soon. It was a good weekend! I’m a bit tired from the 8 hours of driving, but I met a lot of new friends, and I’m looking forward to visiting again at the end of the summer for the MN Atheists annual conference.

Terry Davis likes my Book!

03/30/2013 10:38

I got an email from my writing mentor, Terry Davis, today. Terry is the author of Vision Quest (which became a hit movie in 1985 with Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino), If Rock and Roll Were a Machine, and Mysterious Ways. Terry was also a writing teacher (he’s retired now) in the MFA program at Minnesota State University in Mankato, where I took a couple of writing workshops with him around 2006. I might never have considered writing for publication without Terry’s advice and encouragement. So I was pretty happy to get this reaction to An Infidel Body-Snatcher and the Fruits of His Philosophy:

The prose is so smooth and conversational that the text sails on by. And what you're writing ABOUT is so valuable and timely that to make it as accessible as you do is a real service to our culture. If "culture WAR" is an accurate description of what's going on, then this is powerful weapon for the good guys.

Thanks, Terry!

Published and available TODAY!

03/14/2013 17:49

An Infidel Body-Snatcher and the Fruits of His Philosophy is the story of a freethinker. Charles Knowlton called himself a “free enquirer”—his enemies called him an “Infidel.” Knowlton was also a “Body-Snatcher.” As a medical student, Charles Knowlton stole corpses to dissect. Charles was caught and convicted, and served time in jail.

After a troubled youth, Knowlton became a doctor and wrote America's first birth control book, Fruits of Philosophy, in 1831. He was convicted and imprisoned for that as well—this time with hard labor. Charles was an outsider for most of his life, fighting religious and social conformity. This is a true story about why outsiders are important, and what they can achieve.

Growing up surrounded by superstition and hypocrisy, Charles developed an unswerving dedication to finding and telling the truth. If the truth he’d found was opposed by authorities in the church and government, Charles went ahead and told it anyway. This is a true story about the power of integrity.

It’s also an adventure story, full of conflict, drama, humor, and a little horror. Charles Knowlton led an unusual life; it gave him a radical outlook and led him to develop a unique personal philosophy. But it was what Charles did with this outlook—the fruits of his philosophy—that really mattered. This is a true story about how experiences become ideas, and how ideas become actions.

What are people saying?

"Charles Knowlton, doctor, freethinker, and early advocate of contraception, is best remembered for his manual on birth control, ‘The Fruits of Philosophy’, which appeared in 1832 and which led to his prosecution and imprisonment. This superb biography of Knowlton by Dan Allosso, the first ever to be published, is based on the most thorough research and written with admirable clarity and understanding. This is a biography to be enjoyed by every lover of freethought."
---Bryan Niblett, Author of Dare to Stand Alone: The Story of Charles Bradlaugh

"This is really great. I love reading about my home town -- no one ever writes about Greenfield, Massachusetts. And I love the rich guy excommunicating the church. How hip is that?"
---Penn Jillette, Author of God, No!

"History isn’t always made by Great Persons engineering Great Compromises. Sometimes society moves forward because a common man or woman takes up a radical cause and pursues it without regard to consequences. Charles Knowlton was such a man, undeservedly ignored by mainstream historians. Dan Allosso’s capable new biography of Knowlton illuminates the promise – and the pitfalls – of radical social change pursued from society’s rank and file."
---Tom Flynn, Editor, FREE INQUIRY Magazine

"An interesting, engaging, and at times fascinating account of a little-known American hero. Dan Allosso has soundly crafted an excellent biography."
---Phil Zuckerman, PhD, Author of Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion

Publishing this week?

03/11/2013 09:40

Counting down the days, now.

There are still a couple of small changes that I need to see, before the book is DONE, and ready to go up on Amazon. But they’re small, and they won’t take much longer.

In the meantime, the people who have seen the book seem to like it. I got some great blurbs for the back, and I hope to get a couple more. If they don’t all fit on the back cover, they’ll all fit on the webpage!

Thomas Paine’s books

02/14/2013 10:04

When he died, Charles Knowlton had two volumes of Thomas Paine in his library. The first that appears in the estate inventory was listed as “Paines Theological Works” and valued at fifty cents. The second, titled “Paines Political Works,” was valued at one dollar.

While it’s impossible to be certain exactly what editions of these books Knowlton owned, we can make educated guesses. Knowlton died in 1850, so all the volumes he owned would have been printed prior to that, and less valuable ones were probably older. An edition of the “Political Works” was printed in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1826 by Tannatt and Company, under the supervision of Peter Raynolds. This book contains The Rights of Man, Common Sense, The Crisis, and three letters written by Paine. Paine’s writings are preceded by a Biographical Sketch that seeks to rehabilitate Thomas Paine and undo the damage done to his reputation by earlier biographies (primarily the books by George Chalmers printed in London in 1792 and by James Cheetham printed in New York in 1809). The text of this biographical sketch seems similar but not identical to one written by W. T. Sherwin in 1819 and published by Sherwin’s friend Richard Carlile in London. It was common practice in the era before international copyright regulations for publishers on one side of the Atlantic to liberally plagiarize unprotected foreign books. So the Springfield edition probably owes a lot to Carlile’s London volumes on Paine, which were famous not only for repopularizing Paine but also for landing Carlile and several of his allies in jail for sedition and blasphemy.

There doesn’t seem to be a Springfield volume of Thomas Paine’s theological writings, possibly because they were aggressively anti-clerical and Peter Raynolds was a minister. To be fair, though, the Preface to the “Political Works” which was probably written by Raynolds gives full credit to Paine as “one of the principal founders of the American Republic.” “Had the author of Common Sense been wanting,” Raynolds says, “it is probable that our beloved country would have been, at this time, groaning under the sickly and senseless pageant of monarchy, instead of enjoying the choicest blessings of liberty.”

Since there is no Springfield edition of “Paines Political Works,” and since its value is half that of the other Paine book, I suspect Knowlton had an older volume, possibly the 1819 Richard Carlile edition (or a pirated copy printed in America). Knowlton had free thinker friends in Boston and New York such as Abner Kneeland, Robert Dale Owen, and Frances Wright, who were all publishers, and of course Owen and Wright were British. So it’s equally possible that Charles Knowlton had either a pretty faithful copy of Carlile’s edition, or the real thing.

I mention this because it helps establish the really close relationship between American and British freethought in the first half of the nineteenth century. As I’ve mentioned, I think this is an element of the story that is missing from Susan Jacoby’s two recent books on freethinkers. My biography of Knowlton will begin to address this, and my biography of Charles Bradlaugh will continue the process for the second half of the nineteenth century.

Map of "Knowlton Country"

02/12/2013 08:01

This is a portion of an 1832 map of New England, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. I’ve highlighted the towns that are important in Charles Knowlton’s story. The only major place I left off was New York City, because if I included it, it meant including all of Connecticut – which made the labels a little harder to read.

The whole Knowlton story happens on what we might think of as a really small area of land, mostly within the borders of Massachusetts. We should remember, though, that Charles Knowlton often travelled between these various places (including Hanover, New Hampshire) on foot. Later in his life, he travelled on horseback. But even so, we’re talking about four to five miles an hour.

Coming Soon!

02/10/2013 09:36

I’ve been offline lately, locked away, writing. Here’s the result.

An Infidel Body-Snatcher and the Fruits of His Philosophy is on its way! I’ve finished the all-important major draft. Now I’m working on revisions, editing, and formatting. The finished product will probably be ready in the next month to six weeks.

Here’s the seventeenth revision of the cover, by my lovely bride, Steph:

knowlton cover 17

Batman

12/09/2012 13:21

I finally saw The Dark Knight Rises last night. I really wanted to like it. Didn't. (spoilers)

If a billionaire loses his entire fortune in the options market, and all the trades just happen to coincide with an armed strike on the exchange, don't you think they'd figure out something wasn't quite right?

If a young kid who becomes a cop can recognize the anger behind Bruce Wayne's smile and know he's the Batman, how come no one has a clue who the child of Ra's Al Ghul really is? Even after sleeping with her?

The one thing I did like was the chalking of the batman symbol everywhere. The attempt to understand the "coming storm" at least slightly in the context of the Occupy movement also had potential...

Chores

12/08/2012 11:28

Home alone — Steph and the kids are away visiting her folks. Chores this morning consisted of letting the dogs out a t first light (more or less), feeding them, eating a quick breakfast and then feeding the rest of the family. Cats got a brick of raw ground chicken, then the chickens got a bucket of sprouted sunflower seeds. The sheep and goats got a little sweet feed and some hay, out on their little loafing pasture. Then I “processed” the bucket of kitchen scraps I picked up at the restaurant last night. It consisted of a big pile of fat trimmings from “roast beef night” and a gallon or so of lettuce. That was the first course. The lower part of the bucket was also food prep materials; not too many bones to pick out (lunch seems to be the big bone producer — people order chicken wings and ribs a lot). They’ll get that batch this afternoon.

Feeding done, I split and hauled three loads of firewood, and stacked two of the loads indoors. The third is waiting in the wagon in the garage. It’s snowing now, so in case there’s a blizzard, I have a little extra. I also took advantage of the last chance before more snow-cover, to pack a couple more boxes of kindling, from the pile I left in the front yard when I cut down a nice pitchy dead pine last summer.

So the outdoor chores are pretty well complete for the day. The animals will get a little more food mid-afternoon, and then they’ll get put away in the evening; but none of that takes much time. So I have the rest of the day to do indoor work (finish the bathroom renovation, clean the garage, start building nesting boxes for the pullets, do some laundry) and to read & write. That last bit — the part that’s actually my “work” — needs to start getting a little more attention…

Oh yeah, and I need to read up on butchering chickens.

Tags: Gardenagerie

The history of our place in the universe

12/04/2012 09:12

Everyone is more or less aware that one of the major changes that began the European Enlightenment and brought about the modern world was the realization that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Through a series of discoveries, often fiercely opposed by protectors of the status quo, western cultures slowly embraced the idea that the universe is much bigger than we had previously believed. But maybe we ought to consider how recent many of these discoveries were, and how new information is coming to light almost daily that promises to remake our worldview all over again.

To review some of the big milestones on this journey of discovery, Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published his heliocentric theory, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, in 1543. Copernicus replaced the Earth with the Sun as center of the solar system, but the universe was still a smallish place, extending only to Saturn and the “fixed stars” which had been known since prehistoric times. The next planet, Uranus, was discovered by William Herschel in 1781, while his countrymen were fighting to retain their thirteen rebel colonies in America. Neptune was discovered in 1846, based on mathematical predictions made by Urbain Le Verrier to explain observed perturbations in the Uranian orbit (this was also a dramatic confirmation of Newton’s theories of gravity). But again, although our gaze had widened to include the solar system and the Milky Way, the background of more distant stars which had once been thought to all inhabit a single “sphere,” the

universe was still pretty small and we were at its center. (Illustration is the shape of our Galaxy as deduced from star counts by William Herschel; the solar system was assumed near center, as first published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1785)

Although Immanuel Kant had speculated in the eighteenth century that the Milky Way might be an “island universe,” in April, 1920, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis debated the structure of the universe at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Shapley insisted that the Milky Way was the whole universe, while Curtis argued that observations of the “Andromeda Nebula” suggested it was separate from and far away from the Milky Way, which he believed was only one “island universe” among many. The existence of galaxies was finally settled by Edwin Hubble in the early 1920s, and in 1929 Hubble published his Redshift Distance law of Galaxies (now called simply Hubble’s Law), which for the first time suggested the true physical scale and immense age of the universe.

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, and in 2005 a team led by M. E. Brown discovered Eris, a Trans-Neptunian Object larger than Pluto that would certainly have been hailed as the tenth planet if Pluto had not already been demoted. By 1936, when Hubble published his classification system for galaxies, we understood that the universe was much larger and much older than we had ever imagined. But we were still unique and special, many believed, because we were the only known solar system and the only place in the universe that harbored life.

Nobel physicist Enrico Fermi, in an informal discussion in 1950, suggested what has come to be known as the Fermi Paradox: if the universe is so old and so big, where is everyone? Outside science-fiction circles, however, Fermi’s question has been largely ignored. It was still possible, until the last year or so, to believe that even in a nearly unimaginably big and old universe, Earth was the oasis of life. Very recent discoveries make this belief much less tenable.

Over the last few years, astronomers have begun searching for and finding planets circling distant stars. At first, most of these “exo-planets” were gas giants many times larger than Jupiter. But as the technology (primarily space-based telescopes and earth-bound computer processing power) improved, they began to find rocky planets not much larger than Earth. To date, astronomers have mapped the locations of hundreds of exo-planets, with thousands of possibilities waiting to be examined. Even the Alpha Centauri system, our nearest stellar neighbor, is now known to have a planet only 113% the size of Earth.

The planet circling Alpha Centauri B is not Earth 2.0, however. It is too close to its star, so the surface temperature is much too high. In addition to believing the Milky Way was the entire universe, Harlow Shapley postulated “habitable zones” surrounding different types of stars, where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Astronomers have generally regarded earth-like planets as the ideal places for life to develop, although some dissenters have pointed out that pressure as well as temperature influences the behavior of water, and there is ice on Mercury. So Shapley may have been wrong about this too, and the parameters for liquid water may be wider than just “Earth-like” worlds. But even if we restrict our search for possible havens of life to rocky planets in their stars’ habitable zones, these have now been located. And we’ve only scratched the surface.

On average, astronomers have now concluded, there are 1.6 planets for every star in our galaxy. This is news – give it a moment to sink in. Even the astronomers were surprised. There are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. And there may be as many “rogue planets” drifting around on their own, not associated with any particular star. There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. But don’t take my word for it; I’m a historian not an astronomer. Check out the links to Space Fan News, produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s astronomer Tony Darnell. Tony does an incredible job distilling all the latest astronomy and astrophysics headlines into weekly videos on his You Tube channel. In one of my favorites, he sums up the discoveries of the last few months: “that comes out to tens of billions of Earth-size planets that could have liquid water, in our galaxy.”

Most of these revolutions in our understanding of our place in the universe have taken some time to filter out of scientific circles. But they have also been contentious, especially when scientific discoveries challenged widely held beliefs and dogmas. I wonder, in light of all the harm religion has done to our search for the truth (and to many of the individuals who searched!), why historians are currently so fascinated with the history of religion. It’s the hot new field, if books, articles, and professional blogs are any evidence. The Historical Society, which I’m a member of, for example, has received a grant of over $1 million to sponsor a program and book on “Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs.” Seems like somebody out there ought to say something about the ways religion has hindered innovation, to balance all the papers that are sure to be written about how faith and progress are the best of friends. But even aside from the history of science and religion, I wonder whether this underlying issue of where we see ourselves in the universe has influenced how we do history. I suppose (since it’s not my period) the change from a Ptolemeiac to a Copernican worldview altered the way historians approached their work. Maybe that’s all implicated in modernism, but I wonder about the relationship between an expanding view of the universe and how we think of history. And I wonder what effect the discovery of life (intelligent or not) off Earth would have. But yeah, I guess really what I’m wondering is what it will take for people to give up on their religious dogmas? Or is it really a case of Credo quia absurdum (“I believe because it is impossible”)?

Tags: Science, History