Clik here to view.
Quebec’s French-style secularism: history and enduring value
statue of jean lesage, father of ‘the quiet revolution’ and Quebecois secularism, in front of quebec’s parliament building. image credit: Bouchecl. Image used under the Creative Commons...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘This is not rocket science’: the Disestablishment of the Church of England...
Paul Scriven in Parliament just after our interview, 5 December 2023. Image: Freethinker Introduction On the afternoon of Wednesday 6th December 2023, Paul Scriven, a Liberal Democrat peer, introduced...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘I do not think you are going to get a secular state without getting rid of...
graham smith photographed during this interview in the conway hall foyer café. Image: Freethinker (2023). Introduction On 25 November, 2023, at the historic Conway Hall in London, I met Graham Smith,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What has Christianity to do with Western values?
Vladimir Putin in Patriot Park with members of the Russian Orthodox Church and the armed forces, September 2018. Image: www.kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons. Amid all the horror, the Russian invasion...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Faith Watch, February 2024
Faith Watch is a monthly round-up of the errors, disasters and absurdities following in the wake of religions around the world, by our assistant editor, Daniel James Sharp. Fanatics in all the wrong...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Michaela School and religious exceptionalism
Adults and children together on a Pro-Palestine march, London, 11 November 2023. Photo: Julian Stallabrass via Wikimedia Commons. The culture of intolerance that has grown over time in the UK has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Image of the week: Integration
Integration, BY POLYP (PAUL FITZGERALD). For the Freethinker‘s coverage of the Michaela Community School story, see Khadija Khan’s essay on religious exceptionalism and assistant editor Daniel James...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How I lost my religious belief: A personal story from Nigeria
A chapel used for discipleship training, Jos, northern Nigeria. photo: S. Audu (2024). There are many ‘harams’ – things that are ‘religiously forbidden’ – in Nigeria: Boko (‘Westernisation’) is haram,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Secularism is a feminist issue
The following article is adapted from a talk given to the Leicester Secular Society on 3 March 2024. Women’s march 2018, Seneca Falls, USA. Image: Marc Nozell via Wikimedia Commons. In 1877, a woman...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Faith Watch, March 2024
Faith Watch is an idiosyncratically compiled monthly round-up of the errors, disasters and absurdities following in the wake of religions around the world, by our assistant editor, Daniel James Sharp....
View ArticleThree years on, the lessons of Batley are yet to be learned
In March 2021, fearing for his life and his family, a religious studies teacher at Batley Grammar School fled his job and home. A campaign of threats and intimidation was underway, instigated by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The case of Richard Dawkins: cultural affiliation with a religious community...
image credit: Karl Withakay. image used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Every couple of years, whenever he declares that he is a ‘cultural Christian’,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Nature is super enough, thank you very much!’: interview with Frank Turner
Credit: ben morse Introduction Frank Turner is an English singer and songwriter whose music I have loved for years. His songs are wild and varied, sometimes sad and sometimes happy but always somehow...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Against the ‘New Theism’
Note: this is a very slightly revised version of a piece originally written for my personal Substack and published on 7 February of this year. Fiolent, Crimea, Black Sea. Cape Fiolent is home to St....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rushdie’s victory
image credit: elena ternovaja. image used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. ‘What you have made will long endure.’ This is how Salman Rushdie signed off one of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can the ‘New Theists’ save the West?
Jordan Peterson, ‘the Richard dawkins of new theism’, making an address to delegates at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, 2023. Vladimir Putin is one of the last defenders of Christian...
View ArticleClik here to view.
White Christian Nationalism is rising in America. Separation of church and...
the us bill of rights as proposed in 1789. in this version, what would become the first amendment (which separates church and state) is listed as ‘article the third’. A judge citing the Bible and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Keir Starmer must bring the UK’s diverse but divided people together
A week on from the election of a new government, Megan Manson of the National Secular Society (NSS) reflects on what a Labour government might mean for secularism in the UK and the worrying trend of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Donald Trump, political violence, and the future of America
image: Evan Vucci. details and non-free use rationale per wikimedia commons.Donald Trump was nearly killed a couple of days ago, and the consequences of this failed assassination attempt will...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An upcoming secularist conference on the safeguarding of liberal values in a...
Stephen Evans highlights the myriad threats to secular liberalism and sets out what’s needed to preserve it ahead of the National Secular Society’s upcoming conference on protecting liberal values, at...
View Article