"The Best of Causes": a Critical History of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists

Abstract

The Auckland Rationalist Association reformed in 1927, the same year Bertrand Russell's famous tract, Why I am Not a Christian was published; the year one writer has described as the high water mark of British atheism. This thesis is interested in what happened once the tide started going out. The Rationalist Association was formed very much in the style of the Rationalist Press Association in Britain, which was founded in 1899 in a climate of optimism about the universality of reason, the inevitability of progress, and confidence that the destinies of both were inextricably interwoven. The competing and divergent interests latent in this conception of Rationalism have been reflected in the history of the Rationalist Association in New Zealand. It will be argued that there developed an inevitable tension between the two conceptions of Rationalism in the definition. Part One of this thesis is a critical history of the Rationalist Association, the first ever to be written. Full advantage has been taken of hitherto untouched archival materials and an extensive library of Rationalist books, pamphlets and periodicals. The focus is on the head office and main centre of support in Auckland where most of the Association's energies have been directed. Part Two is a series of five related thematic studies of significant aspects of the Rationalist encounter with the modern world. Special attention is given to material written from within the movement; material largely ignored but with much to offer the broader religious studies picture. The confidence of the early Rationalists in the efficacy of reason and science and the inexorable march of progress was shaken by the rise of fascism and the Spanish civil war. Moreover, the foundations of Rationalism were further undermined by the rise within the movement of a militant Marxism; a belief system which had enough in common with Roman Catholicism to be able to provide the sort of buttressing Rationalists felt they needed in the face of these challenges. But while Marxism had been a topical solution to the problems of the thirties, it was deeply unpopular and problematic in the fifties. The new challenger was Humanism but it failed to supplant Marxism as the guiding ideology of the Rationalist movement in the way that Marxism had succeeded in supplanting liberal progressionism of the twenties. The consequences for the Association were devastating as it slowly declined and was relegated to the margins of society. A major conclusion of this study is that the Marxist ascendancy was profoundly damaging to Rationalism, and that no serious recovery was possible until its stranglehold over the Association was broken. It will be demonstrated that this recovery became possible only once it was understood that a return to the liberal individualist roots of Rationalism was essential, and that the most comprehensive system of belief that espouses this is Humanism. Much of the intellectual problem in realising this change can be seen in the definition of Rationalism the Association took on at its inception. Indeed the problems inherent in the definition of Rationalism the Association has used are a microcosm of the tribulations of the Association at large.