FFRF and Shakespeare

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, FFRF, has a really nice feature worth checking out: Freethought of the Day (FTD). Members of the FFRF, or subscribers to Freethought Today, have the ability to get these emailed to them daily (as I do). Joining FFRF is easy and cheap -- $25 for student membership.

Today's FTD is about William Shakespeare, since today's his birthday. I have reproduced FFRF's post in its entirety below, and copyright laws apply:

William Shakespeare

On this date in 1564, William Shakespeare was born in England. He died in 1616. The "master" playwright was eulogized by 19th century agnostic orator Robert Green Ingersoll. In one of his famous lectures, Ingersoll said that when he read Shakespeare, "I beheld a new heaven and a new earth." (The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Interviews, Vol. IV, p. 39.) "All well-educated ministers know that the Bible suffers by a comparison with Shakespeare." (Vol. VIII, p. 297) "If Shakespeare could be as widely circulated as the Bible . . . nothing would so raise the intellectual standard of mankind. Think of the different influence on men between reading Deuteronomy and 'Hamlet' and 'King Lear' . . . The church teaches obedience. The man who reads Shakespeare has his intellectual horizon enlarged." (ibid, p. 313)
No one knows Shakespeare's personal religious views, although he certainly was not orthodox, and put many different types of sentiments into the mouths of his characters. His philosophy seems most succinctly described in the famous "Seven Ages of Man" speech from "As You Like It," which begins:

"All the world's a stage/ And all the men and women merely players:/ They have their exits and their entrances;. . ."

ending with

"mere oblivion./ Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

Below are several of Shakespeare's most famous irreverencies.
"In religion, what damned error but some sober brow will bless it, and approve it with a text, . . .?"
-- "The Merchant of Venice," Act III, Sc. II
"Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian."
-- "Twelfth Night," Act I, Sc. III
"His worst fault is, he's given to prayer; he is something peevish that way."
-- "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Act I, Sc. IV
"We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
-- "The Tempest," Act IV, Sc. I
"Modest doubt is call'd the beacon of the wise."
-- William Shakespeare, "Troilus and Cressida," Act II, Sc. II

I hope some of you will consider joining FFRF. They do really good work, and all donations (including membership fee) are tax-deductible. I especially enjoy Dan Barker's writings.