Doubt in 19th century America

[defacto7]

Frances Wright, usually called Fanny, championed religious doubt. At 18, Fanny had a literary and philosophical club at which members delivered essays to one another. Fanny delivered one about Epicurus and Leontium, Epicurus's first female disciple, which was later published as A Few Days in Athens. In it she states, "To fear a being on account of his power is degrading; to fear him if he's good, ridiculous... I see no sufficient evidence of his existance; and to reason of its possibility I hold to be an idle speculation."
She was influenced by Utilitarianism, later called utopian socialism, famous for their schemes for a perfect community, including gender equality, free love, and free thought.


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