The Freethinker (journal)

The Freethinker

Cover of Volume III, Number 43 from October 1883
Categories	Science magazine
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	1 May 1881
Final issue	April 2014 (print)
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Website	www.freethinker.co.uk

The Freethinker is a British secular humanist publication, founded by G. W. Foote in 1881.^[1] One of the world's oldest surviving freethought publications, it moved online-only in 2014.

It has always taken an unapologetically 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; it has been published by G. W. Foote & Co. Ltd. since its inception.

In 2006, the magazine's front-page masthead was changed from "Secular humanist monthly" to "The Voice of Atheism since 1881".

Daniel James Sharp is the current editor, succeeding Emma Park from April 2024.