![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secular humanism</span> Life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg/320px-Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg)
Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, logic, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dresden, Yates County, New York</span> Village in New York, United States](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/The_Dresden_Hotel%2C_Dresden%2C_Yates_Co_NY.JPG/320px-The_Dresden_Hotel%2C_Dresden%2C_Yates_Co_NY.JPG)
Dresden is a village in Yates County, New York, United States. The population was 308 at the 2010 census. The village was named after Dresden in Germany.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert G. Ingersoll</span> Agnostic, lawyer, politician and orator (1833–1899)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Robert_G._Ingersoll_-_Brady-Handy.jpg/320px-Robert_G._Ingersoll_-_Brady-Handy.jpg)
Robert Green Ingersoll, nicknamed "the Great Agnostic", was an American lawyer, writer, and orator during the Golden Age of Free Thought, who campaigned in defense of agnosticism.
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.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Kurtz</span> American philosopher (1925–2012)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Paul_Kurtz_1979.jpg/320px-Paul_Kurtz_1979.jpg)
Paul Kurtz was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.
The American Secular Union espoused secularism and freethought at the end of the 19th century in the United States.
The Golden Age of Freethought is the mid 19th-century period in United States history which saw the development of the socio-political movement promoting freethought. Anti-authoritarian and intellectually liberating historical eras had existed many times in history, notably in eighteenth century France. But the period roughly from 1875 to 1914 is referred to by at least one contemporary writer as "the high-water mark of freethought as an influential movement in American society". It began around 1856 and lasted at least through the end of the century; author Susan Jacoby places the end of the Golden Age at the start of World War I.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secular Student Alliance</span> American nonprofit organization](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Secular_Student_Alliance_%28logo%29.jpg/320px-Secular_Student_Alliance_%28logo%29.jpg)
The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) is an American educational nonprofit organization whose purpose is to educate high school and college students about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations. The SSA also offers these students and their organizations a variety of resources, including leadership training and support, guest speakers, discounted literature and conference tickets, and online articles and opinions.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Inquiry</span> American nonprofit organization](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/CFI_2017_logo.png)
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government.
![<i>Free Inquiry</i> Bi-monthly journal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Free_Inquiry_cover.jpg)
Free Inquiry is a bimonthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz was the editor-in-chief from its inception in 1980 until stepping down in 2010. Kurtz was succeeded by Tom Flynn who worked as Editor in Chief until 2021. Paul Fidalgo was named editor in 2022, beginning with the October/November issue. Feature articles cover a wide range of topics from a freethinking perspective. Common themes are separation of church and state, science and religion, dissemination of freethought, and applied philosophy. Regular contributors include well-known scholars in the fields of science and philosophy.
Joseph Lewis was an American freethinker and atheist activist, publisher, and litigator. During the mid-twentieth century, he was one of America's most conspicuous public atheists, the other being Emanuel Haldeman-Julius. Born in Montgomery, Alabama to a Jewish family, he was forced by poverty to leave school at the age of nine to find employment. He read avidly, becoming self-educated. Lewis developed his ideas from reading, among others, Robert G. Ingersoll, whose published works made him aware of Thomas Paine. He was first impressed by atheism after having read a large volume of lectures of Ingersoll devoted to his idol Paine, which was brought to their house by his older brother. He later credited Paine's The Age of Reason with helping him abandon theism.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of humanism</span> Overview of and topical guide to humanism](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg/320px-Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg)
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to humanism:
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Flynn (author)</span> American writer (1955–2021)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Tom_Flynn_speaking_at_the_2011_Humanist_Film_Festival.jpg/320px-Tom_Flynn_speaking_at_the_2011_Humanist_Film_Festival.jpg)
Thomas W. Flynn was an American author, journalist, novelist, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and editor of its journal Free Inquiry. He was also director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and the Freethought Trail.
Debbie Goddard is an American atheist activist and speaker, and the director of African Americans for Humanism (AAH). In 2019 she took on the role of vice president of programs at American Atheists. Since 2020, she has been on the board of directors of Humanists International.
Edward Milton Buckner is an American atheist activist who served as president of the organization American Atheists from 2008 to 2010. He was succeeded in this post by David Silverman.
Gordon Stein was an American author, physiologist, and activist for atheism and religious skepticism.
![<i>The Truth Seeker</i> American freethought publication](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Truth_Seeker_Cover_Mark_Twain.jpg/320px-Truth_Seeker_Cover_Mark_Twain.jpg)
The Truth Seeker is an American periodical published since 1873. It was considered the most influential Freethought publication during the period following the Civil War into the first decades of the 20th century, known as the Golden Age of Freethought. Though there were other influential Freethought periodicals, Truth Seeker was the only one with a national circulation. The headquarters is in San Diego, California. The Truth Seeker is the world’s oldest freethought publication, and one of the oldest periodicals in America. Among general-readership titles, only Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and The Nation are older.
Eva Ingersoll Brown Wakefield was a writer, poet, freethinker, and an authority on the life of Robert G. Ingersoll, her grandfather.