Editing Thomas Edison (section)

==Views==
===On religion and metaphysics===
[[File:19101002 &quot;No Immortality of the Soul&quot; Says Thomas A. Edison - The New York Times.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5| This 1910 ''New York Times'' Magazine feature states that "Nature, the supreme power, (Edison) recognizes and respects, but does not worship. Nature is not merciful and loving, but wholly merciless, indifferent." Edison is quoted as saying "I am not an individual—I am an aggregate of cells, as, for instance, New York City is an aggregate of individuals. Will New York City go to heaven?"]]
Historian Paul Israel has characterized Edison as a "[[Freethought|freethinker]]".<ref name=Israel /> Edison was heavily influenced by [[Thomas Paine]]'s ''[[The Age of Reason]]''.<ref name=Israel /> Edison defended Paine's "scientific [[deism]]", saying, "He has been called an [[atheism|atheist]], but atheist he was not. Paine believed in a supreme intelligence, as representing the idea which other men often express by the name of deity."<ref name=Israel /> In 1878, Edison joined the [[Theosophical Society]] in New Jersey,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tsmembers.org/|title=Theosophical Society Members 1875–1942 – Historical membership list of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) 1875–1942|website=tsmembers.org|access-date=October 8, 2018|archive-date=October 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009092813/https://tsmembers.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> but according to its founder, [[Helena Blavatsky]], he was not a very active member.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Collected Writings, Vol. XII|last=Blavatsky|first=Helena Petrovna|publisher=Theosophical Publishing House|year=1980|location=Wheaton, IL|pages=130}}</ref> In an October 2, 1910, interview in ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'', Edison stated:
{{blockquote|
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me—the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love—He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions.<ref>{{cite news |title="No Immortality of the Soul" says Thomas A. Edison. In Fact, He Doesn't Believe There Is a Soul—Human Beings Only an Aggregate of Cells and the Brain Only a Wonderful Machine, Says Wizard of Electricity |quote=Thomas A. Edison in the following interview for the first time speaks to the public on the vital subjects of the human soul and immortality. It will be bound to be a most fascinating, an amazing statement, from one of the most notable and interesting men of the age&nbsp;... Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me—the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love—He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us—nature did it all—not the gods of the religions. |work=The New York Times |date=October 2, 1910}}</ref>
}}
Edison was labeled an atheist for those remarks, and although he did not allow himself to be drawn into the controversy publicly, he clarified himself in a private letter:
{{blockquote|You have misunderstood the whole article, because you jumped to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. There is no such denial, what you call God I call Nature, the Supreme intelligence that rules matter. All the article states is that it is doubtful in my opinion if our intelligence or soul or whatever one may call it lives hereafter as an entity or disperses back again from whence it came, scattered amongst the cells of which we are made.<ref name=Israel />}}

He also stated, "I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt."<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=75ldAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+believe+in+the+God+of+the+theologians;+but+that+there+is+a+Supreme+Intelligence+I+do+not+doubt%22 The Freethinker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619214033/https://books.google.com/books?id=75ldAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+believe+in+the+God+of+the+theologians;+but+that+there+is+a+Supreme+Intelligence+I+do+not+doubt%22&dq=%22I+do+not+believe+in+the+God+of+the+theologians;+but+that+there+is+a+Supreme+Intelligence+I+do+not+doubt |date=June 19, 2020 }}'' (1970), G.W. Foote & Company, Volume 90, p. 147</ref> In 1920, Edison set off a media sensation when he told [[B. C. Forbes]] of ''[[American Magazine]]'' that he was working on a "spirit phone" to allow communication with the dead, a story which other newspapers and magazines repeated.<ref>{{cite web|date=October 28, 2010|title=Edison's Forgotten 'Invention': A Phone That Calls the Dead|url=http://www.gereports.com/edisons-forgotten-invention-a-phone-that-calls-the-dead/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111162640/http://www.gereports.com/edisons-forgotten-invention-a-phone-that-calls-the-dead/|archive-date=November 11, 2013|publisher=GE Reports}}</ref> Edison later disclaimed the idea, telling ''The New York Times'' in 1926 that "I really had nothing to tell him, but I hated to disappoint him so I thought up this story about communicating with spirits, but it was all a joke."<ref>{{cite web|title=Invention Geek – Edison Spirit Phone?|url=http://www.patentplaques.com/blog/?p=1026|access-date=November 11, 2013|archive-date=September 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924060930/https://www.patentplaques.com/blog/?p=1026|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== On politics ===
Edison was a supporter of [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=October 7, 1915|title=Edison Comes Out Unqalifiedly for Suffrage|pages=12|work=Passaic Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82682483/passaic-daily-news/|access-date=August 2, 2021|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=August 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802204721/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82682483/passaic-daily-news/|url-status=live}}</ref> He said in 1915, "Every woman in this country is going to have the vote."<ref name=":0" /> Edison notably signed onto a statement supporting women's suffrage which was published to counter [[Anti-suffragism|anti-suffragist]] literature spread by Senator [[James Edgar Martine]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 7, 1915|title=Edison, Harvey, Hughes and Other Leading Men Refute Senator Martine|pages=12|work=Passaic Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42981945/male-suffrage-support/|access-date=August 2, 2021|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=August 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802210059/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42981945/male-suffrage-support/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Nonviolence]] was key to Edison's political and moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for [[World War I]], he specified he would work only on defensive weapons and later noted, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill." Edison's philosophy of nonviolence extended to animals as well, about which he stated: "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."<ref>Cited in [https://books.google.com/books?id=DtjWFiDKsJ0C&pg=PA37 Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624004345/https://books.google.com/books?id=DtjWFiDKsJ0C&pg=PA37&dq=%22Still+savages%22+edison&ei=KiHMSLJSiNzKBIiglYsJ&sig=ACfU3U2IXFOuvGUriygDwhEkgvqyaefwEg |date=June 24, 2016 }} by Sarah Miller Caldicott, Michael J. Gelb, p. 37.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vegetarianism_quotes_from_noteworthy_people.htm|title=Vegetarianism Quotes from Noteworthy People|access-date=April 5, 2016|archive-date=April 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413051510/http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vegetarianism_quotes_from_noteworthy_people.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> He was a vegetarian but not a [[vegan]] in actual practice, at least near the end of his life.<ref name="Israel" /> Following a tour of Europe in 1911, Edison spoke negatively about "the belligerent [[nationalism]] that he had sensed in every country he visited".<ref>{{Cite web|date=April 24, 2020|title=Review: Thomas Edison's life of ceaseless action|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/04/24/review-thomas-edisons-life-ceaseless-action|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=America Magazine|language=en|archive-date=August 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831224014/https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/04/24/review-thomas-edisons-life-ceaseless-action|url-status=live}}</ref>

Edison was an advocate for monetary reform in the United States. He was ardently opposed to the [[gold standard]] and debt-based money. Famously, he was quoted in the ''New York Times'' as stating: "Gold is a relic of [[Julius Caesar]], and interest is an invention of Satan."<ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/12/06/98768710.pdf |title=Ford sees wealth in muscle shoals |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 24, 2013 |date=December 6, 1921 |archive-date=March 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314171007/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/12/06/98768710.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In the same article, he expounded upon the absurdity of a monetary system in which the taxpayer of the United States, in need of a loan, can be compelled to pay in return perhaps double the principal, or even greater sums, due to interest. Edison argued that, if the government can produce debt-based money, it could equally as well produce money that was a credit to the taxpayer.<ref name="query.nytimes.com" />

In May 1922, he published a proposal, entitled "A Proposed Amendment to the Federal Reserve Banking System".<ref>Edison, 1922.</ref> In it, he detailed an explanation of a commodity-backed currency, in which the [[Federal Reserve]] would issue interest-free currency to farmers, based on the value of commodities they produced. During a publicity tour that he took with friend and fellow inventor, [[Henry Ford]], he spoke publicly about his desire for monetary reform. For insight, he corresponded with prominent academic and banking professionals. In the end, however, Edison's proposals failed to find support and were abandoned.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hammes |first1=D.L. |last2=Wills |first2=D.T.|title=Thomas Edison's Monetary Option|journal=Journal of the History of Economic Thought|year=2006 |volume=28|issue=3|page=295|doi=10.1080/10427710600857773 |s2cid=154880573 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hammes |first=David L.|title=Harvesting Gold: Thomas Edison's Experiment to Re-Invent American Money|publisher=Mahler Publishing|date=2012}}</ref>