Freethinker's Classics Archives - The Freethinker

Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man (Freethinker’s Classics, Book 5)

Dan Bye — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 20:14:40 +0000

One of the Marquis de Sade’s earliest writings, the Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man (written 1782) is also one of the earliest modern statements of open atheism, and after more than two centuries it remains a classic of freethought. The translation for this edition is by Nicolas Walter.

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Thoughts on Religion (Freethinker’s Classics, Book 4)

Dan Bye — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 20:07:27 +0000

First published by G.W. Foote & Co. Ltd. in 2002, this edition was the first full and faithful translation of Diderot’s aphorisms, together with two extra items included in the same collection.

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What I Believe: and other essays (Freethinker’s Classics, Book 3)

Dan Bye — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:59:59 +0000

E M Forster took an active part in the growing humanist movement in Britain after the Second World War. From 1946 he was a leading member of the Cambridge Humanist group, becoming its President in 1959 (his inaugural address is included in this collection). He was a member of the Ethical Union in the 1950s, and of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association in the 1960s, taking a particular interest in broadcasting. Forster often defended Humanism in the press and on radio, and never avoided awkward issues in this area.

This collection of his essays illustrates E M Forster’s vital Humanism. It provides an insight into Forster’s beliefs for students and readers of his novels. It will also appeal both to self-declared humanists, and to readers who are seeking an alternative to religious faith.

Contains the essays “What I Believe”, “An Alternative in Humanism”, and “How I Lost My Faith”, plus an introduction and notes by Nicolas Walter.

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The Necessity of Atheism (Freethinker’s Classics, Book 2)

Dan Bye — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:50:21 +0000

This reprint of Shelley’s groundbreaking essay, edited by Nicolas Walter, closely follows the original edition of 1811, and is followed by appendices containing the editorial introduction to the first facsimile edition of 1906, and an editorial note to this edition (1998).

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Secularism, The True Philosophy of Life: An Exposition and a Defence (Freethinker’s Classics, Book 1)

Dan Bye — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 19:43:14 +0000

Freethinker’s Classics, #1.

“Secularism is often accused of being atheistic. It is, however, neither atheistic nor theistic. It ignores the problem of God’s existence… and confines itself to the practical world of experience, without commending or forbidding speculation on matters that transcend it. Unquestionably many Secularists are Atheists also, but others are Theists, and this shows the compatibility of Secularism with either a positive or a negative attitude towards the hypothesis of a supreme universal intelligence.” [from the essay].

In 1890, G.W. Foote (1850-1915) became Charles Bradlaugh’s successor as president of the National Secular Society, but this essay first appeared in 1879 during his breach with Bradlaugh – Foote was expelled from the NSS in 1876 for open opposition to Bradlaugh’s leadership, but the two were reconciled in 1880.

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