Year in review: 2024

Both the world at large and the Freethinker itself have been through some pretty big changes this past year. We’ll get to the world soon, but the Freethinker saw a change of editor in April when I took over the role from Emma Park. To be specific, I took over on 1 April (of all days!).

This editorial regeneration was not quite as radical as I make it sound. One of my main aims in taking over was to continue the excellent work done by Emma—to do her record proud. Without her, the Freethinker would not be what it is today, full of original and provocative articles, interviews, and cartoons. How lucky I was to take over when I did, at a time when the magazine was in such great shape. Thank you, Emma. And thanks to Emma and the Boards of G.W. Foote & Co and Secular Society Ltd for entrusting me with this position (it gave me immense pleasure to be involved in the final stages and launch of our digitised historical archive, on which more below). I hope I’ve repaid that trust over the past nine months.

Of course, neither Emma nor I could have made anything of the Freethinker without our range of brilliant contributors. They have produced so much superb work in 2024; it’s an honour to be able to publish it. And biggest thanks of all to our readers, whom it is all for and without whom…

As 2025 beckons ever closer, let’s take a look back at the Freethinker in 2024. Some loose themes are discernible and we shall take them as our headings, though much of our content could come under multiple of them (and others could no doubt serve just as well).

I. Secularism

Over the last couple of months, two big longstanding secularist issues have come to the fore: assisted dying and the disestablishment of the Church of England. More on the former later, but National Secular Society (NSS) Chief Executive Stephen Evans and abuse lawyer Richard Scorer have recently written of the pressing need for disestablishment in the wake of the Church’s appalling abuse scandal. Could 2025 be the year Britain finally throws off one of its last vestiges of theocracy?

This year also saw the end of 14 years of Tory domination in Westminster. Stephen Evans wrote in advance of the general election about what secularists hoped for from the next government and the NSS’s Megan Manson, a week after Labour came to power, called on Keir Starmer to reject the desire for religious privilege and the sectarianism evinced by various faith groups before, during, and after the election. On the same theme, Khadija Khan bemoaned the influence of Islamic identity politics during the election campaign.

In October, the NSS held a conference on protecting liberal values, at which Emma Park, me, and various others associated with the Freethinker spoke. Photos and videos from the conference can be found here.

Plenty of other secularist stories and issues were featured in the Freethinker in 2024. Khadija Khan wrote about the Michaela School controversy, Megan Manson wrote about secularism’s relationship with feminism, Jack Rivington reflected on the Batley affair three years on, Keith Porteous Wood celebrated the life of his late partner and predecessor as NSS President Terry Sanderson (a photo of Terry was also one of our images of the week), and Neil Barber went back to basics and argued the case for secularism.

Miscellaneous other stories related to secularism and religion in 2024 were covered in my Faith Watch columns.

II. New Theism

One of my big bugbears for a while now has been the rise of what I like to call the New Theism. This movement, or trend, has become more and more noticeable over the past year or so. The fundamental claim of the New Theists is that we need religion (in particular, the Christian religion) if ‘Western civilisation’ is to be kept secure—whether we believe in it or not. I have spoken and written about New Theism at length myself and also commissioned various others to write on the subject. A compilation of Freethinker content about New Theism, or somehow connecting to it, can be found here.

Contributors and interviewees whose thoughts can be found in that compilation (in addition to yours truly) are Nick Cohen, Adam Wakeling, Daniel C. Dennett, Lawrence Krauss, Rachel Laser, Brian Victoria, Mathew Giagnorio, Charles Freeman, Piers Benn, Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, Jack Stacey, Matt Johnson, Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, and Maryam Namazie. (Also, Christopher Hitchens—not returned from the dead, alas, but his Estate kindly allowed us to republish a chapter from his 2007 book god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. To complement this republication, Francisco Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters—discussed and appreciated by Hitchens in god Is Not Great—was one of our images of the week.)

III. Free speech, free thought, and religion

The centrality of free speech and free thought, and often their relationship with religion, continued to be a major topic in the Freethinker in 2024.

Emma Park interviewed human rights lawyer Susie Alegre about the threat posed to free thought by new and evolving digital technologies (and Ralph Leonard reviewed Alegre’s book on the matter). Emma also wrote about the dangers of the Scottish Hate Crime Act and interviewed psychiatry professor Simon McCarthy-Jones about the psychology of free thought. Noel Yaxley, too, wrote about the sorry state of free speech in Scotland, as well as the concerning return of ‘non-crime hate incidents’.

Islam remains one of the staunchest enemies of free speech and free thought in the world today, so no wonder it appeared in this connection in our pages throughout the year. Khadija Khan reported on a protest against compulsory Ramadan participation held in March. I reviewed Salman Rushdie’s latest book, an inspiring account of and reflection upon the vicious stabbing inflicted on him in 2022. Noel Yaxley wrote about the plight of the Iranian rapper and dissident Toomaj Salehi and the troubled relationship between Islam and music. Mark Lilly critiqued the concept of ‘Islamophobia’ and Daniel Herbert made a Kantian case against outlawing the desecration of religious texts. In celebration of International Blasphemy Day on 30 September, our image of the week was a photo of my first edition of Rushdie’s beautiful and blasphemous book The Satanic Verses (one of my most prized possessions).Finally, during Christmas week, Benjamin Jones and Khadija Khan drew attention to the plight of ex-Muslims in Britain and around the world today, as part of Ex-Muslim Awareness Month.

Meanwhile, Helen Pluckrose mounted a philosophical defence of the marketplace of ideas, essential for free speech and thought (I also interviewed Helen about how to best defend liberalism, among other topics), Gerfried Ambrosch wrote about his punk rock cancellation, and Maryam Namazie argued that feminism and religion are incompatible.

Taking a slightly contrary view, Bob Forder wrote of his worries about championing free speech in the age of social media disinformation and hatefulness. [Note added 3 January 2025: See the comments section below for Bob’s clarification of the purpose of his article.]

Finally, Leo Igwe of the Humanist Association of Nigeria called for a new pact of atheism in the 21st century to ensure the continued flourishing of free thought around the world.

IV. Controversies

Admittedly, pretty much everything the Freethinker publishes could be included uner this heading. But in 2024 there were some particularly heated arguments and controversies worth drawing attention to in a section of their own.

First, as promised, we return to assisted dying. Though a longstanding secularist campaigning issue, the assisted dying debate does not split evenly between the religious and the non-religious, the secular and the non-secular. With the passage of the second reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the House of Commons on 29 November, I took the opportunity to look back at the debate as played out in the pages of the Freethinker.

In that article, I focused especially on a few 2024 articles on assisted dying, including perhaps our most provocative article of all this year: Kevin Yuill’s humanist case against ‘assisted suicide and euthanasia’. Yuill’s argument stirred much debate in the comment section and inspired a rebuttal by Tony Akkermans, to which Yuill responded in turn. May the Freethinker long continue to provoke such disagreement!

Covered semi-frequently in these pages over the previous two years, we returned a couple of times to one of the fiercest arguments in public life of recent years: the gender identity debate. Kunwar Khuldune Shahid discussed the tensions among South Asian feminists over the issue, and Emma Park interviewed the philosopher Louise Antony about sex, gender, and their consequences.

Richard Dawkins’s most recent, and highly publicised, avowal that he is a ‘cultural Christian’ inspired Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, Jack Stacey, and Thorsten Botz-Bornstein to delve into exactly what this vogueish term means, with the latter declaring himself a ‘cultural non-Christian’.

Legendary gay rights activist Peter Tatchell appeared in our pages to call for a more inclusive and comprehensive style of sex education in an article which perhaps marks the first time the word ‘rimming’ has appeared in these august pages. (I haven’t yet worked up the courage to search our historical archive to confirm or refute this conjecture.)

What is the difference between a terrorist and a revolutionary? Sid Lukkassen considered this question by looking at the career of Tanja Nijmeijer, a Dutch woman who left her life behind to fight with the Colombian FARC.

One of the most frequent terms heard in public discourse in recent years is ‘identity politics’. Frank Haviland gave a view from the right on a controversy between a former Time Lord and now-Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, while leftist Maryam Namazie reproduced in written form her barnstorming NSS conference speech tearing into identity politics of all kinds.

This summer, a dispiriting spectacle materialised on British streets: violence and vileness from far-right thugs against Muslims and immigrants. Sara Al-Ruqaishi lamented the equally dispiriting sight of some ex-Muslims lining up to defend the rioters, while Noel Yaxley considered the consequences of the riots for free speech and Khadija Khan reflected on the sad predictability of these events.

Race in America: one of the most vexing issues of all. Ralph Leonard was on hand to review a book by a journalist who donned blackface to investigate that very subject (and was unimpressed).

The rise of the ‘tradwife’ on social media elicited an article from Eliana Silver, in which she critiqued the double standards whereby the views of some religions about the proper role of women are protected from criticism and even celebrated while those of other religions are not.

The very word ‘controversy’ conjures images of people shouting at each other until they are crimson in the face. But what does anger do to us, philosophically and politically? Alan Rome explored this question just this month.

Some lighter items to finish off…

Sausages or hostages? Our resident satirist and quirk of evolution Porcus Sapiens returned to take a sidelong look, via 1066 and All That, at Keir Starmer’s unfortunate mix up when discussing the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

And finally, do you believe in ghosts? Lots of people do, apparently. Noel Yaxley isn’t so sure.

V. Global events

Continuing the Freethinker‘s long tradition of internationalism, we covered various events from around the world.

Through the lens of ancient Indian philosophy and free thought, Kunwar Khuldune Shahid examined the victory (and setbacks) of Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in the 2024 Indian elections (to accompany this, one of our images of the week was a portrayal from the Dazu Rock Carvings in China of the ancient Indian materialist Ajita Kesakambali). Elsewhere on the subcontinent, Tehreem Azeem reported on Pakistan’s feminist Aurat March, Ayaz Brohi argued that the persection of Ahmadis in Pakistan undermines Pakistani democracy, and Malik Ramzan Isra provided a personal and political narrative of the evils of feudalism in Pakistan.

The horrors faced by—and the heroic resistance of—the women of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan was the subject of articles by Zwan Mahmod and Khadija Khan. Khadija also criticised the UN’s betrayal of women’s rights with its spineless treatment of Iran and Zwan also reported on the death of a revolution in Sudan.

The plight of the Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang, China was explored and compared with US-style ‘assimilation’ by Grayson Slover, the roots of political Buddhism in Burma (Myanmar) were discussed by Hein Htet Kyaw, the victory of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands last year was analysed by Paul Cliteur, and a history of Russia which offers some perspective on Russia’s actions in Ukraine and elsewhere today was reviewed by Mathew Giagnorio.

The ongoing Israel-Hamas war continued to be debated in the Freethinker. Just as in 2023, we published various perspectives on the conflict. Gerfried Ambrosch defended Israel from charges of genocide and apartheid, while Zwan Mahmod and Brian Victoria argued precisely the opposite case.

Most of our international coverage this year was given over to the US, where Donald Trump triumphed in the November election. In my March Faith Watch column, I worried that, alongside India, the world’s largest secular democracy, ‘the world’s oldest secular democracy might also be preparing to self-immolate this year.’ It’s no fun being right sometimes.

Throughout the year we covered some of the major developments in the US election campaign. Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State warned of the rise of Christian nationalism should Trump re-take the White House, while both Jonathan Church and I responded to the July assassination attempt on Trump by reaffirming how dangerous his victory would be to the future of American democracy. (Incidentally, Jonathan interviewed me this year about the Freethinker and various other things for Merion West’s Escaping Ideology podcast; see here.) I also interviewed US Representative Jared Huffman, the only open non-believer in Congress, about the threat of Trump and Project 2025, and I discussed the radical atheistic roots of the American Revolution and the fight to end American slavery with the scholar Matthew Stewart, in which conversation we also discussed the upcoming election.

Just before the election, Patrick Seamus McGhee looked back at the history of American freethought and argued that it can reinvigorate American democracy as it approaches its 250th birthday and Ralph Leonard bewailed the ‘lesser evilism’ that is a mainstay of American elections. After the result was clear, Zwan Mahmod and Matt Johnson gave contrasting analyses of what Trump’s victory might mean for American foreign policy—and the world.

Finally, the astonishing recent events in Syria were examined by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, who warned that Islamisation would be catastrophic for Syria’s future.

VI. Freethinking lives

The stories of freethinkers the world over, which too often go untold, were once more a prominent feature in the Freethinker this year.

Tehreem Azeem told the story of her liberation from an orthodox Muslim upbringing in Pakistan, an anonymous author described the pressures of being an ex-Muslim during Ramadan in Pakistan, Sonia Nigar told how English literature set her free, and Ehtesham Hassan interviewed Professor Sher Ali, a persecuted Pakistani freethinker.

Amrita Ghosh explained why she is no longer a Hindu, Suyum Audu recounted how he lost his Christian faith in Nigeria (and, in another article, examined eschatology), and Cassandra Brandt related how she escaped American evangelicalism and silenced the voice of God.

In a series of articles entitled Jihad by Word, Jalal Tagreeb refuted various lines of Islamic apologetics while telling his story of becoming an ex-Muslim.

In a profile laced with insight, Samuel McKee discussed two of the world’s most famous social media atheists, the new voices of unbelief for Generation Z: Alex O’Connor and Stephen Woodford. Samuel also interviewed the latter for us and reported on the ‘farewell tour’ of an old New Atheist: Richard Dawkins.

Finally, Charlie Lynch recounted the tale of the excommunicated gay rebel bishop Pat Buckley. It’s a fantastic and fascinating story, shrewdly told by Charlie, who also tells us about his meeting with Buckley a few months before the bishop’s death earlier this year.

VII. Arts

I was incredibly lucky to be able to interview one of my favourite musicians, Frank Turner, and one of my favourite actors, Brian Cox, this year. Topics covered in these interviews (apart from music and acting) included New Theism and the Israel-Hamas conflict. It was a particular pleasure to bond over our shared love of Salman Rushdie and Leonard Cohen with Frank and to have an ‘Irn Bru interlude’ with Brian.

Charles Foster, meanwhile, argued that high culture is ‘atavistic’ and John Mac Ghlionn praised the comedy of Jerry Seinfeld for its existentialism.

VIII. Science and philosophy

Over the past few months, Samuel McKee has written several illuminating pieces about science: a rebuttal of the overblown claims of the ‘intelligent design’ movement, a plea for philosophy of biology to turn away from postmodernism and back towards real science, an analysis of why young people are turning away from STEM (with a plan to get them to come back), and an article on the perils of injecting ideology into science.

At the beginning of the year, I interviewed the physicist Lawrence Krauss about his career, religion, atheism, and the crisis of ‘wokeism’ in science. More recently, I reviewed Richard Dawkins’s latest offering, The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie. Meanwhile, Mohadesa Najumi penned a paean to the liberating and consolatory power of science and Charles Foster reviewed a book on Carl Linnaeus, the Comte de Buffon, and the battle for biology.

On the more philosophical side of the tracks, Nicholas E. Meyer delineated some of the traps philosophers have often fallen into over the millennia, praised a few philosophers who overcame said traps, and pointed out some flaws in what can be broadly labelled ‘Eastern’ philosophies. (I hope you enjoy, as I do, Nicholas’s accompanying illustrations, one of which can be seen below.)

Elsewhere, Buddhist priest Brian Victoria delved into the depths of history and philosophy to ask, in a two-part article, whether religion can save humanity. He has also begun a new two-parter, looking into the nature of Buddhism itself.

Mention of Buddhism brings me to Nathan Alexander’s interesting argument for reincarnation, secular-style.

Finally, Richard Pallardy reflected on the death of a beloved bird and pondered whether altruism can be pathological and Zwan Mahmod argued for an expansion of our concept of democracy to include the economic sphere.

IX. Freethought history

2024 was a big year for freethought history. As mentioned at the outset, the Freethinker’s three-year project to create and make available for free a near-complete digital archive of the magazine’s entire run since 1881 was completed this year. Bob Forder wrote an introduction to this wonderful resource; the archive itself can be found here. One of our 2024 images of the week in honour of the completion of the archive was the very first page of the very first issue of the Freethinker. It was a pleasure to officially launch the archive at the Freethought History Festival held in Conway Hall and supported by the Freethinker earlier this year alongside Bob and other representatives from the Boards of G.W. Foote & Co and Secular Society Ltd.

Speaking of Bob, his introduction to the digital archive was a special instalment of his ongoing Books From Bob’s Library series, in which he shares stories and photos from his extensive freethought literature collection. Subjects covered thus far include the works of Thomas Paine, Richard Carlile’s The Republican, and Henry Hetherington’s The Poor Man’s Guardian. Bob also reviewed Michael Meyer’s book about the trial of Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant for republishing an infamous tract on birth control and looked back on the Freethinker’s Christmas specials of the 1880s (several cartoons in one of these landed our first editor G.W. Foote in prison for nearly a year; see here for a relevant image of the week).

Meanwhile, Piers Benn reviewed Adam Wakeling’s book on the Enlightenment and Adam Wakeling (the very same) reviewed another book on (you guessed it) the same subject.

Eoin Carter reviewed Michael Laccohee Bush’s groundbreaking book about Thomas Paine, dancing to the rhythm of Tom Paine’s bones as he did so. Michael Laccohee Bush (again, the very same!) reviewed Adrian Desmond’s tome on W. D. Saull and 19th-century radical popular culture. Nicholas E. Meyer was impressed by Bill Cooke’s book on H.G. Wells (Cooke himself had earlier written a piece about Wells for us). And—yes, really—Adam Wakeling also reviewed a book on the history and present of blasphemy and violence.

Moving away from the confusingly recurring cast of characters above, Charles Freeman reviewed Catherine Nixey’s books on early Christianity and described how the Roman Empire became Christian (and how Christianity became Roman) and Michel Petheram reminded us of a little-known French freethinker, Emile Chartier, also known simply as Alain.

Finally, though Liz Truss’s brief stab at running the country should not be considered anywhere near the word ‘freethought’, it certainly (and thankfully) counts as history. So enjoy Ralph Leonard’s blistering review of her memoir, which was released earlier this year to cacophonous indifference.

X. Miscellaneous

It wouldn’t do to end without mentioning this year’s images of the week. Sometimes these were timely or interesting photos/drawings/paintings picked by me or Bob Forder (several examples of which are given above); other times, they were cartoons, either re-used (with permission, for which I give thanks) Jesus and Mo ones or original ones produced by Paul Fitzgerald, aka Polyp, the radical cartoonist. Special thanks here to Paul for his magnificent and provocative work for the Freethinker, under both Emma and me. Check out his website and more of his work here. It’s hard to pick a personal favourite of Paul’s 2024 cartoons, so let’s just have two more, in addition to the ones shown above: the ever-relevant ‘Pigeonholes’ and the suitably gruesome ‘Trumpburster’.

Finally, a request for your support…

The Freethinker is an independent and completely open-access journal, funded by donations and legacies from readers all the way back to the 19th century rather than by billionaires or corporations. To ensure free thought is kept alive for the future, we need your support today. If you find the Freethinker valuable, and if you believe in free speech, free thought, open enquiry, and irreverence, please consider donating to us by clicking here.

And remember: sign up to receive our free fortnightly newsletter, to keep up to date with the latest in free thought in the UK and across the world.

And that, as they say, is a wrap. I hope you’ll agree that it’s been a quality year for the Freethinker. Again, I want to reiterate my thanks to all those mentioned at the beginning—most especially to you, dear reader.

Onwards, then, to 2025!