Atheist
In 1880, Charles Bradlaugh was elected as a member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the Northampton district. His constituents knew he was an atheist who liked to publicly challenge Christians but didn’t think it would affect his work in parliament. They were proven wrong on his first day as their MP. He objected to taking an oath of allegiance before God on the grounds that God did not exist. He asked to be allowed to make a good old-fashioned ‘cross my heart’ promise and leave God out of it. This request was denied on the grounds that if there were no God, then there would be no morality, no right and wrong, no truth or lie, and the oath would be meaningless. So, Bradlaugh forfeited his seat in Parliament, but … I kid you not … he kept sneaking in to vote. On three occasions, he voted without anyone noticing that he had snuck in. On other occasions, he was caught and escorted out of the building by police. He thus proved the ruling against him right: that a man that does n