Freethought is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation.
Adolf Muschg is a Swiss writer and professor of literature. Muschg was a member of the Gruppe Olten.
Swiss Standard German, or Swiss High German, referred to by the Swiss as Schriftdeutsch, or German: Hochdeutsch, is the written form of one of four official languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian, and Romansh. It is a variety of Standard German, used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and in Liechtenstein. It is mainly written, and rather less often spoken.
The Giordano Bruno Foundation is a Germany-based non-profit foundation under public law that promotes evolutionary humanism and the enlightenment. It was founded by entrepreneur Herbert Steffen in 2004 and was named after Giordano Bruno. Cofounder and spokesperson is Michael Schmidt-Salomon. He has formed the Executive Board with Ulla Wessels since 2022. The foundation has more than 10,000 supporting members and 50 regional and university groups.
Hans Martin Sutermeister was a Swiss physician and medical writer, politician, and activist against miscarriages of justice.
Hans Schinz was a Swiss explorer and botanist who was a native of Zürich.
Jean Willi is a Swiss painter, draftsman and author.
Gaudenz Canova was a Swiss socialist from Graubünden (Grisons).
Kacem El Ghazzali, is a Moroccan-Swiss secularist essayist and activist and is one of the few publicly atheist Moroccans. Kacem speaks English, as well as German, French, Arabic and Berber. Mostly known for his publicly voiced atheism, his writings stress the importance of freedom of thought which, in his view, is lacking in countries dominated by Islam. His articles have been published in/by the Richard Dawkins Foundation, Huffington Post, Le Monde, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Basler Zeitung, Tages Anzeiger, Berlingske and others.
Raif bin Muhammad Badawi is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals.
Waleed Sami Abulkhair is a Saudi Arabian lawyer and human rights activist, and the head of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA) organization. He is the first activist to be prosecuted by the Terrorism Law. He was arrested on 15 April 2014, and was sent to al-Ha'ir Prison while awaiting prosecution. On 6 July 2014, Abulkhair was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Specialized Criminal Court, and a travel ban for another 15 years, in addition to a fine of 200,000 riyals (US$53,333). On 12 January 2015, the case returned to the Court of Appeals, after which the judge requested increasing the previous sentence, because Abulkhair refused to apologize. Thus, the judgment was tightened to 15-year executed. In response, Abulkhair prayed for God's victory and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Specialized Criminal Court. Abulkhair is incarcerated in the Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a facility used to hold high-profile political prisoners, as well as members of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Ernst Sieber was a Swiss pastor, social activist and politician who served one term as a member of the National Council (Switzerland) for the Evangelical People's Party. Sieber was one of the most popular and best known personalities associated with the Swiss Reformed Church. He was ordained in the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zürich.
Arnold Dodel-Port was a Swiss botanist and forceful advocate of Darwin's evolutionary theory.
Alfred Ernst was a Swiss botanist.
Ensaf Haidar is a Saudi-Canadian human rights activist. Born in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, Haidar is the wife of Raif Badawi, a Saudi writer, dissident and activist who was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1000 lashes in 2014. She actively campaigns for his freedom. Haidar is the President of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom, which actively campaigns for freedom of speech and human rights awareness in the Arab World. She ran as the Bloc Quebecois candidate in Sherbrooke for the 2021 Canadian federal election but was defeated.
Georges Salz or Georg Salz was a freethinking Swiss writer, publisher and editor.
Mettler & Salz was a Swiss publishing house. It was founded in the 20th century by Mettler and Georges Salz, and was based in Tscharnerstrasse 14 a in Bern. It contributed to spread freethought in Switzerland during the Interwar period and World War II by publishing mainly novels, monographs and scientific literature.
Ernst Brunner was a Swiss documentary and ethnographic photographer.
Walter Schiess was a Swiss editor and freethinker.
The Neue Zürcher Nachrichten (NZN) was a Catholic daily newspaper published in the city of Zürich from 1904 to 1991. The newspaper, founded in Zürich in 1896, was closely associated with the Christlichsoziale Partei and supported the establishment and consolidation of Catholic associations and Christian social party work around Zürich.
