Humanist Poems

Noble Infidels

By: Dorothy B. Thompson PHD
Used by Permission

My favorite infidel is Thomas Paine.
By Paine the seeds of thought in me were sown.
Though Christians call him godless and profane,
His reason is the best this world has known.

Voltaire, of course, was raised amid the creed.
But wouldn't swallow dogma like a pill,
He must adore the lord the priests agreed.
They lied and said he did when he was ill.

Spinoza tried to grasp theology.
It's not for reason, though, just blind belief.
Rejected by both friends and family.
The hated/loved philosopher in chief.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton took her stance
Against religion's narrowminded grind
Because of her all women have a chance
To leave predestined slavery behind.

Jefferson and others loved their brains.
Their reason they would never put aside.
Because of this they broke religious chains,
So thinking men and women need not hide.