JAMES M ALEXANDER’s reflections on a ‘tarted up’ Christian Easter was first published in the March, 1975, edition of the Freethinker. … to misquote Shakespeare, for all humanity celebrates this annual rebirth of nature. Down the avenues of time, from the childhood of the race, has come similar rites of fertility and fecundity, worship of […]
Norway was a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to Christianity, which only reached the nation around 1,000 years ago. But after it fell victim to one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on humankind, Norwegian king Olaf I decided to impose the death cult on his Scandinavian neighbours. According to Nordic lore, a mighty warrior missionary […]
Originally published in the August 1987 issue of the Freethinker to mark the centenary of Rupert Brooke’s birth on 3 August 1887. Since 1915, the year he died, his poems, particularly The Soldier, have been read at innumerable remembrance day services and recruiting rallies. His short life is widely regarded as the epitome of conservatism […]