[4] De Vrije Gedachte strives to use reason, natural science and logic to liberate humanity from prejudices, clerical paternalism, dogmas and false truths.

[5] Originally released anonymously, this treatise by physician and ethnologist Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (1809–1864) narrates a fictional journey across the Dutch East Indian island of Java, during which a discussion unfolds between four scientists who represent materialism (Morgenrood, "Red sky at morning"), deism (Dag, "Day"), pantheism (Avondrood, "Afterglow") and orthodox Christianity (Nacht, "Night"), respectively.

[6] Because the publisher found a second edition too risky, the dissident Amsterdam Masonic Lodge Post Nubila Lux ("After the clouds, the light"), of which Junghuhn was a member, and where the book was warmly welcomed, decided to take over its publication under leadership of Frans Christiaan Günst (1823–1885), defying the scorn of outsiders.

Writer Eduard Douwes Dekker (Multatuli), who never formally became a member, achieved fame in this period through his popular passionate writings that criticised society.

Thereafter the association suffered from internal disputes: in 1867, twenty deistic members seceded to form the social activist group De Humaniteit ("Humaneness").

Other members walked away, and the publication of De Dageraad was interrupted, which broke the national bond between freethinkers[12] In an attempt to innovate, the association briefly changed its name to Het Vrije Onderzoek ("The Free Inquiry", 1873–1876), and jointly published a Manifesto with De Humaniteit in 1875 calling on 'all those free from faith in the Netherlands' to join forces for separation of church and state; poor relief by the government instead of the churches; and compulsory primary education.

Furthermore, the association's structure was democratised, it actively sought publicity, and the now politically and philosophically extremely diverse board of directors welcomed social anarchist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis to its ranks.

[13] In 1880s, the 'Dageradianen' ("Dawnians", also called 'Dageraadsmannen' or "Dawnmen" and 'Dageraadsvrouwen' or "Dawnwomen", respectively) focused increasingly on philosophical materialism and atheism under the influence of Ernst Haeckel, Ludwig Büchner, Charles Darwin and the Dutch Jacob Moleschott (later honorary member[14]), whilst more and more freethinking feminists such as Aletta Jacobs, Wilhelmina Drucker, Elise Haighton (secretary and editor-in-chief of De Dageraad) and Titia van der Tuuk (board member) came to the fore and made women's emancipation a central theme.

[17] At first, there existed a lot of mistrust amongst freethinkers regarding the parliamentary democracy, seeing the adoption of universal suffrage in 1917/1919 had significantly strengthened the position of confessionalist political parties.

Furthermore, the Communists and Social Democrats, that included several self-declared freethinkers, appeared unwilling to attack religion in the House of Representatives, because they did not want to exclude themselves from forming a ruling coalition with the Roman Catholic State Party.

To oppose the now more Christian politics, some freethinkers partook in several small anti-clerical and early Fascist protest parties, that initially looked up to Mussolini as 'the former socialist and religion-fighter'.

[21] Confronted with the rise of totalitarian forms of both Fascism and Communism, Dageradianen started to defend parliamentary democracy more and more, even though both extremes and anarchism continued to be represented within the association.

The Interior Minister Heemskerk (Anti-Revolutionary Party) refused to grant royal permission to this bylaws amendment in 1924, because atheism would go against morality and the public order, and lead to anarchy.

However, soon after chairman Jan Hoving started his speech on the controversial topic of "Mussolini as freethinker, and as suppressor of the freedom of thought", the broadcast was interrupted by the commission, that later stated he had offended 'the Prime Minister of a befriended nation of the Netherlands', and damaged the reputation of 'the Chief of the Roman Catholic Church'.

The act of censorship was widely condemned by the other media from left to right, and eventually the minister had to admit intervening too quickly, granting the VRO permission to continue broadcasting.

[34] Although denying any connection to the NSB's actions, confessionalist parliamentarians soon urged the government to ban the VRO's broadcasts, to which Interior Minister de Wilde agreed on 16 November, entering in effect from 1 January 1937.

The new magazine De Vrijdenker, that counted well-known freethinkers such as Anton Constandse and Piet Spigt amongst its editorial staff, soon achieved over 2300 subscribers (1 June 1946), a year later 2645.

[40] In the early 1960s, De Vrije Gedachte went through a relatively dormant phase, losing many of its members, reducing its activities and publishing irregular and low-quality magazines that changed names four times.

[44] In the late 1990s, all regional branches of DVG were dissolved, and for a while it appeared the association itself would disappear, but partially due to the rise of Islam, especially after the September 11 attacks, there was once again a need for a firmly atheistic stance in society.

[44] Under chairship of Anton van Hooff, who opined that the 'combativeness against religion and other unscientific quackery' is threatening to disappear with the 'softened' humanist groups,[2] they left the Alliantie in 2014, and instead sought to work with amongst others Stichting Skepsis and the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij.

[47] Another important issue for the association is safeguarding education and teaching from indoctrination; it wants to prevent children from getting one single belief system imposed on them before they have developed the intellectual capacities to critically consider them for themselves.

From 1921 until 1927, the association explicitly called itself "atheistic" in its bylaws, but because the government opined that a lack of Christian morality would disrupt public order, and therefore withheld approval, it removed that word again.

To achieve this, in the first 150 years of its existence De Vrije Gedachte fought for freedom of expression, separation of church and state, the possibility of cremation, raising and educating children free of religious dogmas, broadening the options for divorce and the rights of labourers.

[4] In the beginning, the magazine De Dageraad took on a rather autonomous, deistic approach under the influence of Junghuhn, while the association itself was open to atheists, pantheists, materialists, liberals, socialists and conservatives in the philosophical, religious or political sense.

[50] In 1859, Eduard Douwes Dekker used his pseudonym Multatuli for the first time in the ethical parable "Geloofsbelydenis" ("Creed") in De Dageraad,[51] and in 1861 he published "Het gebed van den onwetende" ("The Prayer of the Ignorant") about his deconversion, which made him famous and loved amongst the Dageradianen.

[53] After the association survived a subsistence crisis, De Dageraad continued in October 1879 with the subtitle Maandschrift tot bespreking van maatschappelijke en zedelijke vraagstukken ("Monthly review for discussion on societal and moral issues").

[57] De Vrijdenker was reestablished in 1945, appeared weekly and discussed all kinds of political and societal themes, from women's emancipation to environmental protection, from education to decolonisation.