George H. Smith

Born in Japan in 1949 to Frank and Juanita Smith, the young Smith grew up mostly in Tucson, Arizona, which continued to be reprinted many years after. It was in Atheism: The Case Against God that Smith stated he became an atheist by the time he was 16. Around this period, he saw Ayn Rand on The Tonight Show saying that she was an atheist; impressed, Smith sought out her books. == Career ==

Smith began teaching in the 1970s, first under the auspices of his own Forum for Philosophical Studies (with offices on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles), later under the auspices of American libertartian think tanks like the Cato Institute and the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS). In an op-ed for The New York Times in 1992, he defended the right of the Boy Scouts of America to refuse membership to atheists. In November 1999, Smith wrote "In Defense of Rational Anarchism", He wrote: "Those familiar with its [i.e., 'consent' theory's] long history will understand that it has everywhere and always been used to defend and expand the absolute power of govern-ment." His published works often dealt with such issues as capital punishment (which he opposed), anarcho-capitalism and philosophical anarchism, religious toleration, and atheism. Among many figures, he wrote about Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Ayn Rand, to a collection of work by Lysander Spooner. In 2013, Cambridge University Press published his book The System of Liberty: Themes in the History of Classical Liberalism,'' == Philosophy ==

Smith emphasized the importance of what he termed the "habit of reasonableness." In a 1976 lecture delivered to the Society of Separationists, he articulated the intellectual honesty he valued, stating: "one has nothing to fear and everything to gain, from the honest pursuit of truth." == Death ==

Smith died on April 8, 2022, in Bloomington, Illinois. He was 73. == Selected publications ==

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