National Secular Society
전국 세속 협회
The British secularist campaigning organisation founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866. It calls for the separation of church and state, the disestablishment of the state church and religion-free public education, and speaks for atheists. The 1877 prosecution of Bradlaugh and Annie Besant for a book with birth-control information and Bradlaugh’s struggle over the parliamentary oath are central to its history.
In depth
The National Secular Society was founded in 1866, when secularist groups around the country joined to coordinate their campaigns, with Charles Bradlaugh as president and Charles Watts as secretary. The word secularism had been coined by George Holyoake in 1851, and the Society’s principles held that “this is the only life we have, and that we should work for its improvement”. It did not seek to abolish religion but held that state sponsorship of religion encroached on the freedom not to believe.
In 1877 Bradlaugh and Annie Besant were prosecuted for publishing The Fruits of Philosophy, a book of birth-control information by the American doctor Charles Knowlton; they were convicted but acquitted on appeal. Contraception, which the Society advocated, divided secularists, and a breakaway British Secular Union closed after a few years. Elected for Northampton in 1880, Bradlaugh was refused his seat when he asked to affirm rather than swear on the Bible; after six years of legal and electoral struggle he was sworn in in 1886 and later brought about the right of all MPs to affirm.