The golden age of freethought describes the socio-political movement promoting freethought that developed in the mid 19th-century United States.

Freethought was a philosophical position that held that ideas and opinions should be based on science and reason, and not restricted by authority, tradition, or religion. This movement began around 1856 and lasted at least through the end of the century; author Susan Jacoby places the end of the Golden Age at the start of World War I. 

The Golden Age was encouraged by the lectures of the extremely popular agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll, the popularization of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, the push for woman’s suffrage, and other political, scientific, and social trends that clashed with religious orthodoxy and caused people to question their traditional ideas about the world.


The opponents of Christianity, opponent like; Atheist, free thinkers, infidels, liberals united and formed the national liberal league which was devoted to the complete separation of Church and state.


As the people began to embrace the idea of freethought, leading to the forsaking of their religious beliefs, traditions and moral behaviors. This opened up a door way for the scientific opinions into becoming the people’s belief system, thus making the scientist (scientific research, medication treatments, scientific discoveries, and produced products) into a system that led and governed the American society. 

From Wikipedia, part of the article is edited and written by Conscious lifestyle.