Freethought, comparative religion

Thomas William Doane

1852 – 1885

Thomas William Doane was an American freethinker whose landmark 1882 work Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions systematically compared Old and New Testament narratives with those of ancient civilisations. Drawing on extensive cross-cultural research, he argued that Biblical stories shared mythological roots with Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hindu traditions, making him an influential voice in the secular and comparative religion movements of the late nineteenth century.