Not sure who on nubblies has heard of Robert Ingersoll, but he was what is now referred to as an "Ingersoll Republican"; he eschewed traditional conservatism, but was atheist and very outspoken about it as well as the importance and necessity of secularism.
Robert G. Ingersoll - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dude was considered the best orator of his time by the likes of Walt Whitman, but virtually no one today has any formal educational knowledge of him, most likely because his history has been purposefully omitted from our high school text books.
If anyone is interested in reading his material, there's a short collection of his speeches and essays that can be purchased for a few dollars here:
Amazon.com: What's God Got to Do with It?: Robert Ingersoll on Free Thought, Honest Talk and the Separation of Church and State (9781586420963): Tim Page: Books
His clarity of thought and moderateness impress me so much.
There is also a series of free podcasts on iTunes titled "Librivox: Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll".
If anyone checks any of this out, let me know what you think.