Humanist ideas are as old as human thought. People have given humanist answers to life’s big questions in every age and culture, and in the UK an organised humanist movement has been campaigning, supporting people, and holding ceremonies since the 1890s.
- c. 1500 BCE Materialist philosophy in ancient India
- 500–300 BCE Confucius in China, Epicurus in Greece
- 1400s The Renaissance revives ancient learning
- 1700s The Enlightenment: reason and rights
- 1896 Humanists UK’s story begins
- Today Millions of humanists in the UK
Around the world
3000 years of humanists
A timeline of humanist thinking, from ancient India, China, and Greece to the present day.
The humanist tradition
Thinkers, scientists, writers, and campaigners who shaped humanism, from Democritus to Mary Wollstonecraft and Bertrand Russell.
In the UK
Our history since 1896
How the ethical societies and the Rationalist Press Association became Humanists UK.
Humanist Heritage
Our online archive of the humanist movement: its people, places, campaigns, and objects.