Create a Legacy of Freethought

On this very day, 145 years ago, on 1 May 1881, the Freethinker was launched into the world. In that first issue, our founder, G.W. Foote, firmly and unapologetically asserted the ethos of the new journal:

We will not bore you with a long introductory address, containing a catalogue of promises that may never be kept. 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. During the summer months special attention will be given to the out-door advocacy of Free-thought. Our first number will give a fair idea of the style in which the paper will be conducted.

Any competent Christian will be allowed reasonable space in which to contest our views; and if fuller opportunity is desired, the editor will always be ready to hold a public debate with any clergyman, minister, or accredited representative of the other side.

145 years on, as it happens, Christianity remains one of the greatest barriers to human advancement (vide the vulgar and aggressive Christian nationalism currently in the ascendant in America). But times have also changed, and new forms of dogma and tyranny have arisen, both secular and religious, and the Freethinker has been as opposed to all those as it remains to Christian folly and authoritarianism. Yet Foote’s militant opening paragraphs belied the Freethinker’s other side, which is liberal, humane, generous, and humorous. Indeed, as Foote put it in 1882:

Christians are perpetually crying that we destroy and never build up. Nothing could be more false for all negation has a positive side, and we cannot deny error without affirming truth. But even if it were true, it would not lessen the value of our work. You must clear the ground before you can build, and plough before you can sow. Splendour gives no strength to an edifice whose foundations are treacherous, nor can a harvest be reaped from fields unprepared for the seeds.

…

The only noble things in this world are great hearts and great brains. There is no virtue in a starveling piety which turns all beauty into ugliness and shrivels up every natural affection. Let the heart beat high with courage and enterprise, and throb with warm passion. Let the brain be an active engine of thought, imagination and will. The gospel of sorrow has had its day; the time has come for the gospel of gladness. Let us live out our lives to the full, radiating joy on all in our circle, and diffusing happiness through the grander circle of humanity, until at last we retire from the banquet of life, as others have done before us, and sink in eternal repose.

The Freethinker has survived the imprisonment of its founder for blasphemy in 1883, the oppressively anti-secularist British legal system of the early twentieth century, having its offices bombed during the Second World War, and, more recently, the transition to online media.

We have always been willing to jump into the controversies of the day. Whether publishing blasphemous cartoons in the 19th (and, indeed, the 21st) century, delving into the toxic gender debate, defending free speech against religious and other impositions, opposing Christian nationalism, Islamic tyranny, and the supposed religious revival of the 2020s, or reporting on little-known stories such as the perils of being an atheist in Nigeria, we always hit hard. We cover important topics and debates ignored by much of the rest of the media. At the Freethinker, no religion or ideology is off-limits and fierce debate is always welcome.

But as G.W. Foote noted in 1882, the Freethinker is constructive as well as destructive. That is why we also interview great thinkers and artists, celebrate science and literature, and promote knowledge of freethought history.

And through everything, our readers have kept the Freethinker alive and thriving. And most of all, those readers who have left us a legacy in their wills.

That is why I am asking you to consider leaving us a gift in your will. In doing so, you will help to keep this vibrant, necessary, and unique publication going long after you have retired from the banquet of life. This might not be the immortality promised to the faithful, but it has the virtue of being real.

It is entirely up to you how much you leave us and whether it be in the form of a fixed amount, a percentage of your estate, or investments such as stocks and shares. If you need advice on how to leave a gift, all you need to do is contact us. Otherwise, all your will writer needs is the following information:

G.W.FOOTE & CO. LIMITED

409-411 Croydon Road, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 3PP

Company registration number: 00143331

If you already have a will, it is relatively simple to change, either through a codicil or a letter of wishes.

Leaving us a gift is a simple process, but its impact can reverberate for years and years. So, please, create a legacy of freethought today. Keep the Freethinker, one of the world’s oldest extant freethought publications, surviving and thriving. And ensure that we can continue to champion ‘the best of causes’ (as Foote’s friend, the novelist George Meredith, once put it) for a long time to come.

However much or however little you can spare is more than enough. And, of course, there are other ways you can support us (see here and here). But you just being here and reading the Freethinker means the world in itself. Thank you.

Daniel James Sharp
Editor, The Freethinker
1 May 2026