Author: Julia Lavarnway
Julia Lavarnway is assistant editor at FREE INQUIRY, a columnist for the Secular Humanist Bulletin, and the managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
James Christopher, Founder of SOS, Dies at Seventy-Seven
James Christopher, founder of Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), died July 9, 2020. He had been hospitalized after a stroke in late June. He was seventy-seven. Christopher’s article “Sobriety without Superstition” appeared in the Summer 1985 issue of Free Inquiry. In that article, Christopher told his story of addiction and sobriety. He also lamented that …
Ed Brayton, Influential Atheist Blogger, Dies at Fifty-Two
On August 10, 2020, Ed Brayton wrote a post on his Dispatches from the Culture Wars blog titled “Saying Goodbye for the Last Time.” The post was to inform his readers that he had decided, as he put it, “to end my battle to the death with death.” Brayton had long battled with his health …
Ed Brayton, Influential Atheist Blogger, Dies at Fifty-Two
On August 10, 2020, Ed Brayton wrote a post on his Dispatches from the Culture Wars blog titled “Saying Goodbye for the Last Time.” The post was to inform his readers that he had decided, as he put it, “to end my battle to the death with death.” Brayton had long battled with his health …
This article is available for free to all.Barbara Smoker (1923–2020): A Lifetime of Atheistic Activism
At the close of each year, those close to Barbara Smoker looked forward to receiving what Freethinker magazine Editor Barry Duke affectionately referred to as Smoker’s “‘egotistical’ year-end newsletter.” In Smoker’s 2018 missive, her correspondents learned that in May the beloved UK atheist activist had been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. In disclosing her diagnosis, …
Diana Brown, Recipient of Distinguished Humanist Award, Dies at Seventy-Seven
Brown was a passionate lecturer on women’s rights at conferences and other events throughout the world.
Victor J. Stenger, Physicist and Author, 1935–2014
Victor J. Stenger, a physicist and the author of many popular books on atheism and science, died on August 27, 2014, at the age of seventy-nine.
Joe Levee, Supporter and Former Board Member
Joseph Raymond Levee, a dedicated supporter of the Council for Secular Humanism and its supporting organization, the Center for Inquiry, died at the age of eighty-seven on February 1, 2014.
CFI Gives Women a Voice with Women in Secularism Conference
Attending the Center for Inquiry (CFI)’s “Women in Secularism” conference in Arlington, Virginia, May 18–20, 2012, was an inspiring experience. Having worked for CFI for six years, I have become used to the male-dominated culture that is prevalent in secularism. It was therefore refreshing to hear so many women speaking one after the other on …