Freethought

Why does it matter that we give due credit to pre-Darwinian thinkers such as Chambers? For starters, it helps reduce some of the reigning fixation on Darwin, including his near-obsessive status among creationists.

The bill that Parliament approved, greatly affecting British culture for more than 150 years, stemmed almost single-handedly from the actions and concerns of one influential bishop, Beilby Porteus.

We now know that the moral dimension of human life derives not from religion but from our need, as social animals, to cooperate and live in community with each other.

In my experience, interfaith work doesn't require that people check their convictions at the door, and if the only thing keeping atheists from participating is a semantic disagreement with the word "faith," I think that is a missed opportunity.

It should be fairly evident that secularism is not simply the absence of religion. Rather, it is an active tradition its own articulations of the problems facing society, and its own solutions for making the world a better place.

As we head into 2011, humanist leaders around the world have resolved to give more and get their fellow freethinkers to do the same.

Thanksgiving was a religious holiday for me just as it was for generations of American Christians. But God is no more at the heart of Thanksgiving than brutality is -- meaning both were, and both can be, but neither must be.