As Burns wrote to his friend Robert Muir, “These, my worthy friend, are my ideas. . . It becomes a man of sense to think for himself; particularly in a case where all men are equally interested, and where, indeed, all men are equally in the dark.”

Today is the 251st anniversary of his birth; when he died at the age of 37, 10,000 people attended his funeral.

Thanks to the Freedom from Religion Foundation for reminding me.

And you can sign up for their “Freethought of the Day” here.