Latest Articles
Freethought History Webinar #7: The Trouble with Christ Mythicism. With Bill Cooke (27 January 2026).
An invitation to the seventh in our Freethought History Webinar series.
Looking back, looking forward: a message from the editor
So, here we are, more than a quarter of the way through the century. And it is not…
Freethought History Webinar #6: The Career and Continuing Relevance of Charles Bradlaugh. With Bob Forder (16 December 2025).
An invitation to the sixth in our Freethought History Webinar series.
Free Betty Lachgar! A joint letter from the Free Betty Coalition
Yesterday marked 100 days since the imprisonment of Moroccan feminist Ibtissame Betty Lachgar for the crime of wearing…
Gods, monsters, and scripture: interview with Gavin Evans
Gavin Evans is a writer and lecturer whose most recent book, Bible Stories: Fact, Fantasy and Fiction in…
Freethought History Webinar #5: A Brief History of the Downfall of God. With S. T. Joshi (14 October 2025).
An invitation to the fifth in our Freethought History Webinar series.
Convicted for blasphemy in modern Britain: an interview with Hamit Coskun
An interview with the man recently convicted for burning a Quran in public.
Image of the week: 20 years since the Jyllands-Posten cartoons controversy
30 September will mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of various cartoons of the supposed prophet Muhammad…
Islam and free speech, 20 years on from Jyllands-Posten: interview with Jacob Mchangama
Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of several cartoons of the supposed Prophet Muhammad by the…
Lost in the manosphere: interview with James Bloodworth
James Bloodworth is an author and journalist. In this interview, I speak to him about his latest book,…
Freethought History Webinar #4: Thomas Paine, the Freethinking Democratic Hero Cancelled from Popular History. With Paul Fitzgerald (9 September 2025)
An invitation to the fourth in our Freethought History Webinar series.
Image of the week: ‘Allah is lesbian’ (#FreeBetty)
Ibitissamme Lachgar, known as Betty, is a feminist, human rights activist, and ex-Muslim who for many years has…
The ‘Freethinker’: The Voice of Freethought (Freethought History Festival panel)
Last year, from 30 August to 1 September, the Freethinker-sponsored Freethought History Festival took place at Conway Hall…
Freethought History Webinar #3: A Paine Party? Thomas Paine’s Relevance in America’s Gilded Age—and Today. With Dermot Trainor (27 May)
An invitation to the third in our Freethought History Webinar series.
Image of the week: The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925
July 2025 marks the hundredth anniversary of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, held in Dayton, Tennessee, which saw…
Freethought History Webinar #4: Atheism and Vegetarianism in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Match Made in Heaven? With Nathan Alexander (8 July 2025)
An invitation to the fourth in our Freethought History Webinar series.
The Fourth of July and the Battle for America’s Soul
Happy Independence Day, America.
Image of the week: Francisco Goya’s ‘The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters’
Francisco Goya’s c. 1799 etching is usually regarded as an expression of Enlightenment principles. The imagination, untempered by…
Image of the week: Hamit Coskun, victim of a new form of blasphemy law?
The conviction on 2 June of Hamit Coskun for setting a Quran alight in public has rightly worried…
‘The New Theism’: Talk given to Leicester Secular Society, 18 May 2025
With thanks to the Leicester Secular Society for having me. See here for more on the New Theism.