a pointer: Twelve Secular Saints

I would like to point you all to the extraordinary work that my friend vito_excalibur has been doing this year: the Twelve Secular Saints project.

I can offer no better words of introduction than the author's own:

I present to you: Twelve Secular Saints. Twelve men and women who have given of their lives to free humanity from the heavy toils of religion. Not necessarily on purpose. Some of my saints were quite religious themselves. But through their work they loosened the stranglehold that religion can unfortunately hold on thought, and usually they suffered for it. In this atmosphere of return to traditional values - or at least, someone's idea of what their recent ancestors' traditional values might have been - it seems appropriate to celebrate those who did not look for what was traditional, but what was true.

The story thus far:

Twelve Secular Saints: the eleventh day
The Atheist in His Foxhole
Real Revolution Is About Tenderness
A Magician Among the Spirits
Small, Green and Divided Into Three Parts
Freedom Is a Great Panacea

Gorgeously illustrated, beautifully written, and meticulously documented, this series has been the bright spot of my week. Do yourself a favor and check it out, folks.