March 27
John Ballance
On this date in 1839, John Ballance was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, the first of 11 children. The ironmonger’s apprentice emigrated first to Birmingham, then, with his new wife, to New Zealand.
First elected to the House of Representatives in 1875 on a ticket calling for free education, Ballance later became Minister of Education and Minister of Finance. He was then appointed Native Minister and Minister for Defence and Lands. Ballance founded his country’s Liberal Party. In 1891, Ballance was elected the 14th Prime Minister of New Zealand as a Liberal.
“He took his politics from his liberal mother, who had a Quaker upbringing, rather than his conservative Church of Ireland father. Ultimately, Ballance rejected Christianity altogether, becoming a free thinker.” (Ulster historian Gordon Lucy, Belfast News Letter, July 23, 2018)
Ballance co-founded the Wanganui Freethought Association in 1883 and published The Freethought Review from 1883 to 1885.
He is credited with many progressive reforms, improving government relations with Maoris, and calling for the “absolute equality of the sexes.” As premier, Ballance secured the right to vote for his countrywomen, making New Zealand the first country to do so. He died at age 54 at the height of his popularity after surgery to treat an intestinal disease. (D. 1893)
“A man is not good for much unless there be something of the heretic in him; unless he has a mind so independent, honest, and courageous as to think for himself, and also to choose his own opinions.”
— The Freethought Review (Oct. 1, 1883)
Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor
© Freedom From Religion Foundation. All rights reserved.
Anthony B. Pinn (Quote)
“Human liberation is more important than the maintenance of any religious symbol, sign, canon or icon. … I could see nothing in history pointing toward the presence of something in the world beyond visible realities.” (Anthony Pinn received FFRF’s Emperor Award in 2019.)
— Pinn speaking at Rice University's Center for African and African American Studies (May 28, 2024)
Compiled by Annie Laurie Gaylor
© Freedom From Religion Foundation. All rights reserved.
Alex O’Connor
On this date in 1999, Alex O’Connor — writer, podcaster, debater and secular activist — was born in England. His father is of Irish descent. Alex’s parents separated when he was 9 and he grew up in Blackbird Leys before graduating with a B.A. in philosophy and theology from St. John’s College-Oxford in 2021. His mother had received a cancer diagnosis earlier.
O’Connor first established an online presence by uploading videos on skateboarding to YouTube. By age 17, he was making videos on his channel CosmicSkeptic, commenting on philosophy, religion and political topics like the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He started the Within Reason podcast in 2019 and interviewed Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
Guests from the conservative and religious side of the spectrum such as Ben Shapiro and Peter Hitchens also appeared. Hitchens famously stalked off one show and claimed it was because he didn’t like O’Connor personally. In January 2025 O’Connor was featured in an episode of the American political debate series “Surrounded” on which he he debated 25 Christians on the existence of God and the veracity of the resurrection of Jesus.
He attracted legions of fans as a wunderkind without advanced degrees who attracted members of the Gen Z demographic (born roughly from 1997-2012), the first generation to have a pervasive social media presence. As of this writing in 2026, he had nearly 1.9 million YouTube subscribers and over 373 million page views.
He has held the No. 1 position in podcasts about religion and spirituality. “He achieved this through a decade of hard work building a platform as a teenage atheist whose videos resonated with those growing up alongside him, posits reviewer Samuel McKee. “Everywhere he goes, an audience made up predominantly of young men is eager to introduce themselves, take photos and ask questions … and can seemingly recall everything he has ever read in an instant, and his breadth of reading seems vast.” (The Freethinker, Sept. 30, 2024)
“He is not the brash, arrogant man of New Atheism past. He seems as surprised as anyone at the place he has been given and works as if to prove that he belongs,” says McKee, adding that O’Connor’s willingness to change his mind and his genuineness are critical to his appeal.
His teenage atheism has softened. “I still don’t know if God exists. … I don’t know. It would maybe be a copout if I was intentionally like calling myself one just for like better PR or something. But if anything, it has the opposite effect because I get a lot of flak for being too, you know, firm in a position. As I like to say, ‘I will die on this fence.’ I think it is the most reasonable position to hold, especially because there are so many levels of agnosticism.” (“Why I’m an Agnostic,” YouTube, August 2025)
He says he’s in “an odd spot of being really besotted with Jesus of Nazareth as a person, and being absolutely fascinated by who he historically was and why he had such an effect on the world.” But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t continue to have serious issues with biblical inconsistencies and in particular the God and beliefs and claims portrayed in the Old Testament.
“Maybe the contradictions in the Gospels are best explained by the fact that certain troublesome passages were added in later. Maybe some of the weird things Jesus said or did were explained by the fact that he never actually said or did them. And so, if I meet a Christian who believes all of those things, I can still say I think they’re wrong. But if you ask me whether I personally read these texts and go, ‘Is it all bullshit?’ I have no idea. I don’t know.” (Cherwell, May 29, 2025)
“I don’t think that there’s conclusive proof of God’s existence, at least not to the extent that I’ve been convinced by it.”
— Interview, Cherwell online, Oxford's oldest student newspaper (May 29, 2025)
Compiled by Bill Dunn
© Freedom From Religion Foundation. All rights reserved.
