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Disestablishment of the Church in Wales (1920)
In 1920 the Church of England in Wales ceased to be the established church, the first disestablishment of an Anglican church in Great Britain.
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David Lloyd George (1863–1945)
Wartime Liberal Prime Minister who lost his faith as a boy but kept up the public persona of a devout Welsh Nonconformist all his life.
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The Liberty of Bequest Committee
How Victorian freethinkers fought for the right to leave money to their causes, and how one supporter’s will and a House of Lords judgment in 1917 finally won it.
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J. P. Gilmour (1860–1941)
Scottish pharmacist, editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal, and Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association.
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Humanist Society Scotland
Humanist Society Scotland (HSS) is the national humanist charity for Scotland. Founded in 1989 out of local groups whose roots go back to 1904, it secured legal recognition for humanist marriages in 2005 and today conducts more legal weddings than any religious group in Scotland.
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From the archives: Humanism in Scotland (1983)
In 1983 Nigel Bruce, chairman of the Scottish Humanist Council, explained to readers of the BHA’s Humanist News why Scotland needed a humanist body of its own. His article, reproduced here, is the clearest statement of the case made six years before the Humanist Society of Scotland was founded.
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Books Which Made Me a Rationalist
Under the above heading we shall, during the forthcoming months, publish a series of articles from well-known Rationalist authors which […]
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James Thomson (1834–1882)
Thomson resolved to speak for all who were unhappy. He would be the poet of the sad, the laureate of […]
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Lydia Becker (1827–1890)
Genius is no respecter of sex, and mental ability is scattered in supreme disregard of conventional arrangements. Lydia Becker quoted […]
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James Watson (1799–1874)
I have had but one object in view – to show my fellow-workmen that the humblest amongst them may render […]
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Walworth Freethought Institute
This society, formed in the midst of a piously orthodox neighourhood, virgin soil to the seed-sowing of Freethought, would be […]
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Secularism
The adoption of the term Secularism is justified by its including a large number of persons who are not Atheists, […]
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From the archives: ‘Humanity’s Debt to Thomas Paine’ (1892)
Those clouds called creeds are destined all to fade away, but the sky will remain—humanity; and in the sky will […]
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Meghnad Desai (1940–2025)
It is a very strange idea that moral and various spiritual educations can be learned only by getting people together […]
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From the archives: God’s Gifts and Man’s Duties (1843)
I have, perhaps, shocked some of you to-night: I cannot help it, I value the affection of my fellow-beings, but […]
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Periyar (1879–1973)
A life devoted to uncompromising rationalism, rich in achievement. Obituary for E. V. Ramasamy (Periyar) in New Humanist, April 1974 […]
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Abraham Kovoor (1898–1978)
As the Indian freethought papers have said, by his personal example he left a thousand Kovoors, and this is his […]
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Enid Lakeman (1903–1995)
Should STV ever be introduced in Westminster elections—as it has been in the Republic of Ireland, for Northern Ireland Assembly […]
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Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)
One thing I would earnestly maintain; Ibsen comes home to us. His problems are real problems and are ours. If […]
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Govind Deodhekar (1919-1997)
He was dedicated to the cause of secularism, but in his own gentle way he did not neglect to enjoy […]
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Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901–1935)
One sees rise ultimately… in place of Religion—Nothing… one does not seek to replace a fever by an attack of […]
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Douglas Houghton (1898–1996)
Elected to Parliament in 1949… and here I am! Where else could I be? The pages of the New Humanist […]
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Ronald Fletcher (1921–1992)
Humanism is… a tradition of thought and feeling combined with social action which stems from classical times and which has […]
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Rationalism
Rationalism is not a dogma but a method. It does not tell us what to believe but how to find […]
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J.M. Robertson (1856–1933)
Our age, with all its faults, is surely as capable of a sane ideal as any that went before; and […]
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Mary Raftery (1957–2012)
The hard anger she felt at the cruelty she encountered was always rooted in a deep tenderness for vulnerable humanity. […]
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Edward Blishen (1920–1996)
At this nervous moment… when we have uncertainties about almost everything, it’s particularly necessary that we pool our determination, so […]
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Justin Keating (1930–2009)
One might say that since retirement I have been reworking my paradigm. In that reworking I have reached conclusions, but […]
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Mary Holland (1935–2004)
Mary Holland was a doyenne of Irish journalism. She epitomised the highest journalistic standards – she inquired, she informed, she […]
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Blasphemy Trials
Atheism, unadulterated and undisguised, was diffused into every corner of the land, and the bold voice of the conscientious unbeliever […]
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Terry Sanderson (1946–2022)
If the religious arguments seem irrelevant or cruel, there is another approach which relies on the power of human good, […]
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Constance Dowman (1915–1982)
In all her work for the humanist movement, Constance Dowman said little and did much… She was one of the […]
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Charles Albert Watts (1858–1946)
Charles Albert Watts was a lifelong promoter of rationalism, and the founder in 1885 of Watts’s Literary Guide, still published […]
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Charles Watts (1836–1906)
Avoiding alike mysticism and shallow denial, he was a true Agnostic, anxious not merely to beat down error, but to […]
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Jim Herrick (1944–2023)
Humanism is a way to live, to give meaning to life and to find an understanding of our place in […]
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Francis Sheehy-Skeffington (1878–1916)
A distinctively Edwardian rationalist radical, he himself agreed that he was a crank – ‘a small instrument that makes revolutions’. […]
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Humanist Parliamentary Group
When we stand up for freedom of conscience, for the rights of the individual, for the rational approach and against […]
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Greevz Fisher (1845-1931)
Mr. Fysher was in many respects a remarkable man. His interests were wide, and whatever he took up he carried […]
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From the archives: A Burial Service
The reward of a useful and virtuous life is the conviction that our memory will be cherished by those who […]
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John Ballance (1839–1893)
I believe in the absolute equality of the sexes, and I think they [women] should be in the enjoyment of […]
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V. M. Tarkunde (1909–2004)
The basic human value is freedom, which means the right of a human being to live a human life. V.M. […]
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Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)
Essentially, I am interested in this world, in this life, not in some other world or a future life. Whether […]
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From the archives: Vera Brittain’s toast to the Rationalist Press Association (1935)
I think that one of the most hopeful signs at the present day, and one for which this Movement can […]
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Louisa Thomson-Price (1864-1926)
We hold that only by making happiness for those around us, and by endeavoring, individually, to make the world a […]
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John D. Stewart (1917-1988)
I think I was born a humanist. John D. Stewart, The Honest Ulsterman, May 1968 John D. Stewart was a […]
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From the archives: Why Women Should be Secularists
We hold that only by making happiness for those around us, and by endeavoring, individually, to make the world a […]
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Wales
Wales has long been a nation of nonconformists, with a history of challenging the power and influence of the established […]
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From the archives: Separate Development?
We’re part of society, part of the world whether we or society like it or not, and we have to […]
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William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879)
Our interest, it seems to me, lies with so much of the past as may serve to guide our actions […]
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Bill Bynner (1900-1984)
Bill Bynner was a humanist, socialist, and civil servant. As the editor of South Place Ethical Society‘s Ethical Record wrote […]
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Ernestine Rose (1810-1892)
Emancipation from every kind of bondage is my principle. I go for the recognition of human rights, without distinction of […]
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Presidents of Humanists UK
Humanists UK began as the Union of Ethical Societies in 1896, becoming the Ethical Union in 1920, the British Humanist […]
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David Williams (1738-1816)
I was educated among the Saints; and I now live, thank God, among Sinners. David Williams, Essays on Public Worship […]
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National Education League
…no child should be made ashamed or uncomfortable on account of his father’s opinions, or lack of opinions, on subjects […]
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First Conference of Humanists in Ireland
This conference is resolved to strive for the achievement of peace, justice and tolerance in Ireland, and holds that outmoded […]
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Constance Naden (1858-1889)
…the only universal truths which exist are the fundamental laws of the mind. Philosophy, then, which is the science of […]
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Rationalist Peace Society
…a slowly growing public opinion in favour of arbitration as the alternative to war… is not in consequence of any […]
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Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner (1858-1935)
When we are asked to believe that nothing but a supernatural ideal can inspire and sustain a life-time of complete […]
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Conscientious Objectors’ Commemorative Stone
To all those who have established and who are maintaining the right to refuse to kill. Their foresight and courage […]
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Brigid Brophy (1929-1995)
We are (of all the synonyms I most prefer to ‘humanist’) freethinkers. We are deprived of nothing. We have lost […]
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Sara A. Underwood (1838-1911)
Man for man in larger sense does what heaven fails to do. Sara A. Underwood, quoted by Rufus K. Noyes […]
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Barbara Smoker (1923-2020)
To say that “God moves in mysterious ways” is to put up a smokescreen of mystery behind which fantasy may […]
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From the archives: Towards Freedom
Truth needs the friendly grip of earnest men and women of every class. There is no distinction where it dwells. […]
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From the archives: ‘A Few Words to Freethinkers’
This article appeared in The Secular Chronicle (Vol. V, No. 1), 2 January 1876. It marked the first issue edited […]
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The Secular Chronicle
The object of Secularism is the promotion of human happiness in this world… [The Secularist] believes the surest way of […]
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Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy (1833-1918)
… purely human and natural ethics, and not theology, was the source of this pioneer woman’s enthusiasm for justice, even […]
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Josiah Gimson (1818-1883)
Josiah Gimson was the most prosperous of the 19th century secularists in Leicester, and the main force behind the building […]
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Bristol Gaol
Atheist Charles Southwell was imprisoned in Bristol Gaol for blasphemous libel in 1842. Southwell had written an article in his […]
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Northern Ireland
A brief history of humanism and secularism in Northern Ireland Organised humanism began in Northern Ireland in the 19th century, […]
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Plaque for George Jacob Holyoake
On Woburn Walk is a plaque to George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), a writer, lecturer, and promoter of the Cooperative movement, […]
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James Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937)
The moral value of a belief in eternal life is a doubtful matter. But this is certain, that where rest […]
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Moral Instruction League
Its aim will be to secularise education and make moral training the chief aim of the school life. A great […]
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Robert Owen Museum
Robert Owen, the son of a Newtown saddler and ironmonger, became one of the most successful mill owners of the […]
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University College London
University College London was founded in 1826 as the University of London; the city’s first university, and a consciously secular […]
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Leicester Secular Hall
I might fill columns with tales of the debaters, co-operators, socialists, individualists, critics, artists, scientists, clergy and cranks, who, as […]
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National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a campaigning organisation, founded in 1866 to champion the principles of secularism and the separation […]
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Charles Bradlaugh’s Struggle to Enter Parliament
The House of Commons refused to allow his affirmation, so Bradlaugh applied to take the oath but was again refused. […]
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Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Robert Owen was a utopian socialist, philanthropist, and reformer, whose own religious scepticism fostered his desire for a secular society, […]
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Barbara Wootton (1897-1988)
It is in fact a strength, not a weakness, of a secular morality that it must stand upon its own […]
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Chapman Cohen (1868-1954)
Chapman Cohen was a tireless champion of freethought, and a prolific writer and lecturer for the secularist cause. President of […]
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Frederick James Gould (1855-1938)
F.J. Gould was an influential educationist, writer, and humanist, whose tireless work towards secularising education helped to lay the groundwork […]
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Lady Florence Dixie (1855-1905)
Those who, like myself, are in communication with the advanced thought and thinkers throughout the world know that hundreds —nay, […]
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Felix Adler (1851-1933)
In order to find meaning to one’s life, one must find a meaning in the life of the [human] race. […]
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Ethel Leach (1850-1936)
Ethel Leach was a Liberal councillor, social reformer, justice of the peace, and the first female mayor of Great Yarmouth. […]
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George William Foote (1850-1915)
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. It means caution, independence, honesty and veracity. G. W. Foote George William Foote was […]
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Annie Besant (1847-1933)
Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to […]
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Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891)
Charles Bradlaugh was a leading freethinker, secularist, and founder of the National Secular Society. His efforts to take his seat […]
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Moncure Conway (1832-1907)
It is not because the believer in rational religion has not clear convictions that he will not shape them into […]
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Harriet Law (1831-1897)
Harriet Law was a secularist and speaker, who also promoted women’s rights and socialist ideals. During the 1870s, Law’s house […]
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Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
Thomas Henry Huxley was a man of science, a biologist, and educator. He helped to transform scientific study into a […]
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Richard Congreve (1818-1899)
Richard Congreve was a devoted follower of Auguste Comte, whose positivist philosophies and ‘Religion of Humanity’ inspired Congreve to open […]
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George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906)
Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible […]
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Matilda Roalfe (1813-1880)
I will never voluntarily obey any law which is an outrage on human reason. Matilda Roalfe Matilda Roalfe was an […]
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Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Auguste Comte was a French writer, philosopher, and social scientist, whose theory of positivism was a significant influence on the […]
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Richard Carlile (1790-1843)
I have no view but public good; certainly no desire to injure any one, but a passionate desire to do […]
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Mary Ann McCracken (1770-1866)
Is it not the duty of every person to promote the happiness of others as much as lies in their […]
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William of Ockham (c.1287-1347)
William of Ockham was the fourteenth century’s most influential philosopher: a key thinker of the Middle Ages and an early […]
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Harry Snell (1865-1944)
Harry Snell was a socialist politician and campaigner, a devoted advocate of the Ethical Movement and a key figure in […]
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Rationalist Press Association
The Rationalist Press Association (later known as simply the Rationalist Association) had its origins in the London print works of […]
