The Freethinker (journal)

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For other uses of the title The Freethinker, see The Freethinker (disambiguation).

The Freethinker is a British secular humanist journal, founded by G.W. Foote in 1881. It is the world's oldest surviving freethought publication.

It has always taken a militant atheist, anti-religious stance. In Issue 1 (May, 1881), Foote set out The Freethinker's purpose:

:The Freethinker is an anti‑Christian organ, and must therefore be chiefly aggressive. It will wage relentless war against superstition in general, and against Christian superstition in particular. It will do its best to employ the resources of Science, Scholarship, Philosophy and Ethics against the claims of the Bible as a Divine Revelation; and it will not scruple to employ for the same purpose any weapons of ridicule or sarcasm that may be borrowed from the armoury of Common Sense.

Although closely linked with the National Secular Society for most of its history (NSS Presidents and General Secretaries have at various times also served as Freethinker editor), The Freethinker is strictly autonomous and is not, and never has been, published by the NSS.

Barry Duke is the current editor.

Contents

1 History
2 List of Freethinker editors
3 Bibliography
4 External links

History

Partly because of anti-religious cartoons which appeared in the Christmas 1882 edition of The Freethinker, Foote was prosecuted for blasphemy, and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour.

List of Freethinker editors

Here is a list of editors of The Freethinker from 1881:

GW Foote, 1881 - 1915 (Edward Aveling edited the paper during Foote’s imprisonment, 1883)
Chapman Cohen, 1915 - 1951
F.A. Ridley, 1951 - 1954
A Committee consisting of FA Hornibrook, Bayard Simmons, GH Taylor 1954-1957?
Colin McCall replaced Simmons in 1957 and became sole editor until December 1965
David Tribe, January 1966 - July 1966
Kit Mouat, August 1966 - January 1967
David Collis, January - November 1967
Karl Hyde, November 1967 - August 1968
David Reynolds, September 1968 - July 1970
William McIlroy, 1970 - December 1971
Nigel Sinnott, January 1972 - November 1973
Christopher Morey, November 1973 - December 1974
William McIlroy, 1975 - 1976
Jim Herrick, January 1977 - 1981
William McIlroy, 1981 - 1993
Peter Brearey, 1993 - 1998
Barry Duke, 1998-

Bibliography

Herrick, Jim (1982). Vision and Realism: A Hundred Years of The Freethinker. London: GW Foote & Co. ISBN 0950824305

Marsh, Joss (1998). Word crimes: blasphemy, culture, and literature in nineteenth-century England. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226506916

External links

[The Freethinker's Website]

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