In Baghdad I spoke at length to one of the country's leading secular liberal thinkers, Isam al-Khafaji, a social scientist.
In Egypt, the assassins who in 1992 murdered the distinguished secular thinker Farag Fouda currently are being tried.
In addition, though the founders had access to the works of the great secular thinkers, like Voltaire and Rousseau, they cited them much less frequently and often critically.
Scientific advances prompted a number of secular thinkers to advocate periodic abstinence to avoid pregnancy: in the 1840s it was discovered that many animals ovulate during estrus.
This metaphysical soft landing was long resisted, even derided by a shrinking number of aggressively secular thinkers.
Today, gender roles in Christianity are a matter of debate among theologians and secular thinkers alike.
He was a secular thinker.
The "religious right" can only be understood by acknowledging this dimension, which most liberals and secular thinkers ignore or misunderstand.
Atatürk believed in freedom of religion, but he was a secular thinker and his concept of freedom of religion was not limitless.
Most secular thinkers would agree that integrity is a virtue and that it involves fidelity in interpersonal relationships.