Margaret Knight
From Philosopedia
Knight, Margaret (1903—1983)
Knight, nee Margaret Horsey, was born in Hertfordshire, England, earning her Bachelor's degree at Girton, Cambridge, in 1926 and her Master's in 1948.
Upon reading Bertrand Russell, she commented,
- A fresh, cleansing wind swept through the stuffy room that contained the relics of my religious beliefs. I let them go with a profound sense of relief, and ever since I have lived happily without them.
She worked prior to her marriage in 1936 to Arthur Knight, as a professor of psychology, then moved with him to Aberdeen, Scotland, and lectured at the University of Aberdeen from 1936-1970. She and her husband co-wrote several textbooks.
She became a celebrity across Great Britain when she achieved the freethought coup of giving a series of freethought lectures on the BBC radio, saying,
- It is difficult . . . for the ordinary man to cast off orthodox beliefs, for he is seldom allowed to hear the other side. . . whereas the Christian view is pressed on him day in and day out.
Margaret first submitted a draft script in 1953, after several years of negotiation. The BBC finally suggested that as a psychologist, she broaden her approach to include "positive advice to non-Christian parents on the moral training of children." Her aim: "to combat the view that there can be no true morality without supernatural sanctions."
The fireworks began after her first talk, on Jan. 5, 1955, was written up in newspapers, including one headline in the Sunday Graphic with two-inch letters THE UNHOLY MRS. KNIGHT calling her "a menace." The story began, “Don’t let this woman fool you. She looks - doesn’t she - just like the typical housewife; cool, comfortable, harmless. But Mrs. Margaret Knight is a menace. A dangerous woman. Make no mistake about that.”
The BBC lectures appeared in her 1955 book, Morals Without Religion. In it, she wrote,
- Ethical teaching is weakened if it is tied up with dogmas that will not bear examination.
The book's preface explained,
- I had been uneasy about religion throughout my adolescence, but I had not had the moral courage to throw off my beliefs until my third year in Cambridge.
In 1975, she updated her views on religion in a pamphlet, "Christianity: The Debit Account." After studying the bible and religious history, she wrote that she had become even more critical of Christianity.
While a teacher at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Knight signed Humanist Manifesto II. She edited Humanist Anthology: From Confucius to Bertrand Russell (1961), and Humanist Anthology: From Confucius to Attenborough (1995). In the latter work, which is a revision by James Herrick, writers who have been added are Mark Twain, E. M. Forster, J. Bronowski, Richard Dawkins, David Attenbourgh, A. J. Ayer, Antony Flew, Sidney Hook, and others.
