Remove Christianity and civilization would soon smell better.

[Confused Ape]

I agree that Baden was biased. However, the article also notes that Braden was sued for slander twice and prevailed both times, so his writings were apparently reasonably accurate despite his bias.

We have no way of knowing if he'd have prevailed if he'd been sued for slander in this case. On the other hand, the experiment might have failed because Walser wasn't really suited to the job of organising it.

Liberal, Missouri

Liberal, MO, named after the Liberal League in Lamar, Missouri (to which the town's organizer belonged), was started as an atheist, "freethinker" utopia in 1880 by George Walser, an anti-religionist, agnostic lawyer.

Later in life, Walser later looked into the contemporary issue of spiritualism;

Walser and others became ardent converts of spiritualism, and he spent $40,000 laying out a camp meeting ground of thirteen acres, with twenty cottages, and auditorium seating 800 people, and grounds landscaped with catalpa trees. In addition he built a magnificent home for himself and called it Catalpa Park. On these elaborate camp grounds a number of international conventions of spiritualism were held, attended by as many as 2,000 converts. Walser died in 1910, a firm believer in the spiritualistic. (Sikeston (Missouri) Herald, December 1, 1938)

It is not clear if Walser's later Christianity was a hybrid with his earlier spiritualism, but he did author a book entitled The Life and Teachings of Jesus.

When he died in May 1910, the funeral was held at his home and there were remembrances and music. Then there were excerpts read from a book titled The Life and Teachings of Jesus. It was published in 1909, and the author was Walser. He was, he wrote, a converted infidel.

By surviving accounts, he didn't try to push his new beliefs on others. But he did write the book, a remarkable document from someone who once said that Christianity and the Bible were the crude reasoning of primitive man. He had searched for hope during his life through materialism, atheism, agnosticism and spiritualism but had found none.

Walser wrote in the book that he had "wandered in the desert of disbelief, waded in the river of doubt, and in the sands of desolation." But near the end of his life he found hope. Jesus was the son of God, Walser concluded, and the Holy Ghost was the infinite spirit of our maker. "We should study the chart which Jesus has given us," Walser said. (Kansas City Star on Saturday, December 22, 2001)

He'd spent all his life looking for something and finally found it in Christianity. This is fair enough because some people need religion. It does suggest, however, that had doubts about atheism which wouldn't have made him the best person to run the experiment. After all, somebody who has doubts about Christianity wouldn't be the best person to run a social experiment based on Christianity.