The National Secular Society is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes secularism. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866. Secularism means: in philosophy, the belief that life can be best lived by applying ethics, and the universe best understood, by processes of reasoning, without reference to a god or gods or other supernatural concepts. ... Charles Bradlaugh (26 September 1833 _ 30 January 1891) was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. ... 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ...

Objectives

The society campaigns for

• the disestablishment of the Church of England
• the withdrawal of state subsidies to religious schools
• the end of tax exemptions for churches
• the abolition of the blasphemy law
• an end to the public funding of chaplains in prisons, hospitals and the armed services

Although explicitly an organisation for non-believers, the NSS does not campaign for an end to religion per se, arguing that freedom of religion is a human right and that state sponsorship of selected religions encroaches upon that right. However, in seeking to represent the interests and viewpoints of the non-religious the NSS is often critical of what it sees as the damaging effects of religion. See also secular state. See also civil religion. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... Blasphemy is the defamation of the name of God or the gods, and by extension any display of gross irreverence towards any person or thing deemed worthy of exalted esteem. ... A chaplain is a priest or military unit, a private chapel, a ship, a prison, a hospital, a parliament and so on. ... A secular state is a state with no state religion and in which the state is neutral in matters of religion, neither supporting nor opposing any particular religious beliefs or practices. ...

Honorary Associates

Honorary Associates of the society include

• Iain Banks
• Michael Cashman MEP
• Nick Cohen
• Richard Dawkins
• Michael Foot
• Dr Evan Harris MP
• Patrick Harvie MSP
• Christopher Hitchens
• Paul Holmes MP
• Ted Honderich
• Sir Ludovic Kennedy
• Graham Linehan
• Alice Mahon
• George Melly
• Sir Jonathan Miller
• Taslima Nasrin
• Sir Harold Pinter
• Philip Pullman
• Claire Rayner
• Joan Ruddock MP
• Brian Sedgemore
• Dr David Starkey
• Polly Toynbee
• Gore Vidal

Iain Menzies Banks writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. ... Michael Cashman (born December 17, 1950) was a British actor and is now a Labour politician. ... Nick Cohen: The left has swerved to the right. ... Dawkins is the holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. ... The Right Honourable Michael Mackintosh Foot (born 23 July 1913), British politician, was leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983. ... Evan Harris Dr Evan Leslie Harris MP (born 21 October 1965) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. ... Patrick Harvie MSP Patrick Harvie (born 18 March 1973 in Vale of Leven, Dunbartonshire) is a Green Member of the Scottish Parliament. ... Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (born April 13, 1949, England) is a journalist, author, and literary critic. ... Paul Robert Holmes (born 16 January 1957) is a politician in the United Kingdom. ... Ted Honderich is a Canadian-born British academic philosopher, of Mennonite origin, who moved to London in 1959 to work with Alfred Ayer. ... Ludovic Kennedy (1919- ) is a well known British author and former Naval officer in World War II. He wrote a book called Pursuit about the infamous German battleship Bismarck and its sinking of the British battleship HMS Hood. ... Graham Linehan Graham Linehan (born 1969) is an Irish writer who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written - or written for - a number of popular British comedies. ... Alice Mahon (born September 28, 1937) is an English politician. ... George Melly (born: 17 August 1926 in Liverpool, England) is a British jazz and blues singer. ... Dr Jonathan Wolfe Miller (born 21 July 1934) is a British physician, theater and opera director and television presenter. ... Taslima Nasrin, also known as Taslima Nasreen, (born 25 August 1962 in Mymensingh, Bangladesh) is a writer. ... Harold Pinter Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (born October 10, 1930) is an English playwright and theatre director. ... Philip Pullman Philip Pullman, (born October 19, 1946) is an English writer, educated at Exeter College, Oxford, who is the bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy of fantasy novels and a number of other books, purportedly for children, but attracting increasing attention by adult readers. ... Claire Rayner a British journalist best_known for her role for many years as an agony aunt. ... Joan Mary Ruddock (born 28 December 1943), is a politician in the United Kingdom. ... Brian Sedgemore (on right) with the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, announcing his defection prior to the 2005 General Election. ... Dr David Starkey (born January 3, 1945) is one of the UKs best-known historians, and a specialist in the Tudor period. ... Polly Toynbee (born Mary Louisa Toynbee on December 27, 1946) is a journalist and writer in the United Kingdom, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. ... Gore Vidal, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925) is a well-known American man of letters, a writer of novels, plays and essays, and a public figure for over fifty years. ...

Past presidents

• Charles Bradlaugh 1866-1890 (A. Trevelyan held the Presidency, 1871-1872)
• GW Foote 1890-1915
• Chapman Cohen 1915-1949
• R.H. Rosetti 1949-1951
• F.A. Ridley 1951-1963
• David Tribe 1963-1971
• Barbara Smoker 1971-1996
• Daniel O'Hara 1996-1997
• Denis Cobell 1997- to date

Charles Bradlaugh (26 September 1833 _ 30 January 1891) was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. ... 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Francis Ambrose Ridley, usually known as Frank Ridley (22 February 1897 – 27 March 1994) was a marxist and secularist of the United Kingdom. ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... David Harold Tribe (1931- ) is a leading secularist and humanist. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... Barbara Smoker Barbara Smoker (born 1923) is a British humanist activist and freethought advocate. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

• Royle, Edward (1974). Victorian Infidels: the origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791-1866. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719005574 Online version
• Royle, Edward (1980). Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866-1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719007836
• Tribe, David (1967). 100 Years of Freethought. London: Elek Books.
• Tribe, David (1971). President Charles Bradlaugh, MP. London: Elek Books. ISBN 0236177265

External links

• National Secular Society Website