The Freethought Observer has been a pleasant suprise to me. For a number of years I have tried to map modern antheism, agnosticism, freethought, rationalism and humanism. In my English writings I have started to call these trends 'secularism,' as this word is fairly neutral and can be made to cover most aspects of these interesting currents in modern culture.
It has turned out to be very time consuming to map secularism. There are various reasons for this, but two main difficulties are first that it is made up of numberous very individualistic persons. Secondly, the organizations of secularists are frequently exclusive in the sense that they only report on or have knowledge of a rather limited section of secularism.
There are two international organizations, or rather organizations which try to be international, which form umbrella orgainizations of secularists. First, there is the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU, Nieuwegracht 69A, NL-3512 LG, Utrecht, The Netherlands), and second, there is the World Union of Freethinkers(WUF, c/o Jean Kaech, P.O. Box, CH-3001 Berne, Switzerland). The IHEU is the most important of these two umbrella orgainizations, as it now has close to 100 member organizations in 30 countries. Whereas the WUF has about 12 member organizations, all in Europe. The IHEU ahs a modest nesletter, whereas the WUF keeps in touch with its organizations and individual freethinkers through occasional circular letters.
Since 1993, the newsletter of the IHEU has been called the International Humanist News. Each issue consists fo 16 large pages, and is excellently edited by Jim Herrick. The limited size of the journal makes it impossible to give any good analysis of secularism around the world. In theory, this is Jim Herrick's job, but apart from the limited format, he primarily has to report on what happens in the member organizations of the IHEU. For various reasons it 9s impossible to carry out even this limited task in a satisfactory way.
Jim Herrick is not only the editor of the International Humanist News, but he edits the New Humanist which is published by the Rationalist Press Association, (Bradlaugh House, 47 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8SP, U.K.). The Rationalist Press Association was formerly a most important publisher of secularist writings, but nowadays it plays only a modest role in this field. As an editor of the New Humanist Jim Herrick is quite free, but the format of the journal (lately about 24 large pages) and the other constraints exclude the possibility of making a 'freethought observer' out of his journal.
There are a number of organizations which for various reasons have not joined any of the two international umbrella organizations (IHEU and WUF). For similar reasons there are millions of secularists who are not members of any secularistic organization. Fortunately there are some secularists irrespective of international boundaries. There is, for example, David Briars (Rt-1, B-45, Craftsbury, VT 05826) who in 1992 published his Freethinker's Directory. A third edition appeared in 1994, 60pp.
The issue of The Freethought Observer that I have seen is limited to events in the U.S. It contains information on freethought proclamations issued in four states, on the 4th annual HUMCON conference, on the 17th annual convention of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, on turmoil in the The Humanist(published by the American Humanist Association). The journal also contians other newsy information, an interesting editorial which comments on the activities of the American Atheists, summaries of freethought journals, a section devoted to book reviews, and a calendar of events.
Tim Gorski's other journal, The Freethought Exchange, seems to have appeared since 1992. It is intended as an instrument of discussion for freethinkers with a minimum of editing. The issue I have seen has about 80 rather small pages written by almost 40 authors. Among the contributions may be mentioned: How old was Jesus when he was crucified? A soldier for atheism, Saint Hillary and the politics of cheating, the orignin of the eye, how valid is the argument from design? Ten reasons beer is better than Jesus, etc.
I do not know of any other journal which is the same as The Freethought Observer. The Freethought Exchange is also a very refreshing publication. However, it is too chaotic for my taste. But The Freethought Observer is really a find, and I hope it will be possible to continue its publication. Contemporary secularism needs it and similarly broad-minded and factual journals.