Introduction to "Honest to Goodness"

The 1991-1992 National Council of the Humanist Society of New Zealand offers this short collection of essays to members and to all those who may be interested in how the Society came into being; in what Humanism as a lifestance can mean to those who uphold it; and in the wide variety of ethical and intellectual issues where Humanist ways of thinking can be seen in operation.

In some ways this collection mirrors the Society, and Humanism, itself. The total production is the outcome of the joint efforts of many Humanists and well-wishers - all very busy people who contribute their time to a wide variety of occupations and voluntary agencies, as well as to Humanism.

There has been a feeling of serendipity about the whole operation, and the need for flexibi1ity and pragmatic decisions. The project was, conceived and carried out basically within six months - demonstrating the interest and commitment of those who were able to contribute, explaining also some of the inevitable gaps.

It was never tbe intention to present a definitive collection or statement about Humanism or our Society, (both philosophical and practical impossibilities). The final product does however represent quite a broad range of areas where Humanist thought has been, and is, especially significant. Yet we do regret that there are enormous areas of the 25 year life of the Society which appear here only sketchily - groups and people,especially in the South Island, who have made significant input over the years but who were not able to contribute to this publication: hours spent in submission writing, conducting ceremonies, working with refugees and involvement in social activities; and many many more aspects that those who were involved in them must celebrate in their memories.

Envisaged first as an enlarged version of the quarterly magazine New Zealand Humanist, Honest to Goodness? has emerged to stand alone, entirely in essay form - appropriate, perhaps because Humanists are the first to acknowledge that they are great talkers! (though usually in the search for a sound basis for subsequent action).

As for the title - our Society lays no unique claim to the goodness in it, but sees the cliché as summing up its own ethical basis and the way its members wish to live. The title arose spontaneously, in discussion and immediateley appealed because of its echoes - firstly, of Bishop John Robinson's 1963 publication, Honest to God, where he was one of the first to publicly interpret the troublesome doctrines of his church as merely symbolic, yet insist that they remain as deeply significant - causing a storm among conventional church people.

Margaret Knight's BBC lectures Morals Without Religion (1955) raised a storm of abuse in Britain and she was challenged to reconsider her views of Christianity. The result was a carefully researched and scholarly assessment, Honest to Man(1977)

The third link is to Honest To Our Children by Education Committee of the British Humanist Society which is essential reading for all Humanist (and open-minded) parents, a down-to-earth primer on moral education based on principles of openess, love and responsibility.

And now to our contributors, whose views of course, are not necessarily those of the Humanist Society. In New Zealand, in 1992, Humanists still find themselves continually challenged to assert however quietly, their right to feel free to stand aside from religion,especially establishment religion. Perhaps this is why one rarely meets a dull, or colourless Humanist. Certainly those terms could never be applied to our contributors. In general they have provided their own introductions to their essays, but they have been expanded where the writers were just too modest or inscrutable.

For our opening essay we are lucky to have our own historian in Jim Dakin. His review of the Society's first 25 years is followed by pieces from two Auckland members, Eric Grimes and Wayne Facer, who were instrumental in the birth process. They are only snippets - a series of diary entries and part of the text of a 1967 broadcast talk - but they are true primary source material.

Included with this section is a reprint of an article written in 1961 by Elsie Locke, a self-declared humanist living in Christchurch, six years before the society became established there. Thirty years later it still impresses and such articles seem even rarer today than they probably were then.

We were disappointed that ex-Wellingtonian Beverley Earles was too committed with Humanist involvement and with her family, in the [United] States, to be able to write for us at short notice, so the discovery of a review of her thesis which we have been able to reprint, was especially pleasing. This piece really rounds of the history section of the collection.

Jack Shallcrass and Anne Fergusson have both contributed very personal pieces to which other Humanists will be able to relate warmly. To non-Humanists they probably explain better than lots of abstract words what Humanism is all about.

Rae Julian has chosen an aspect of her work as a Human Rights Commissioner that is obviously close to her heart, and to her Humanism, while Frank Dungey's work over many years for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, of which he was a founder member in New Zealand could pehaps be seen as stemming slightly more from the rational side of Humanism. But then, the head and heart aspects are so intertwined that such distinctions are probably meaningless.

Both Jack Mulheron who has long campaigned for the truly public free and secular schools that we were first promised in 1877, and Kate Contos who first came to Humanists' attention through her outspocken calls for freedom from religion on Sunday Supplement radiobreadcasts, through not memberss, have always been very good friends of the Humansit Society.

Another serendipitous happening was the way the gender balance of our contributors seemed to adjust itself. For instance, speakers at two of our recent seminars, Professor Ivan Snook and Irihapeti Ramsden both agreed to contribute. Throughout all the essays such a level headed way of looking at the world predominates. Personal styles vary with personalities and life experiences, but there are common threads, of assessment of the world as it is, and of pragmatic ways odf relating to it, with which Humanist readers will surely emphasise.

The last three essays could be linked in some kind of an academic bracket, but Dr Denis Dutton from Canterbury University is no ivory-towered academic. His fight to save civilised radio must have brought him much Humanist, and thankfully other, support, and as a Skeptic he's known for his fire-walking feats!

At the same university the brilliant Karl Popper opened the minds of some lucky young people in the 1940s. John Offenberger cleverly links the Austria from where Popper and later John himself came to New Zealand, to Popper's ideas, and to those of our own Dr Beeby.

And finally, emeritus Professor Peter Munz of Victoria Universtiy, offers an intellectual challenge which Humanists cannot avoid - the dilemma of doing something bad in order to bring about a desired good.

We express our thanks to those members who have contributed towards a quality binding for Honest to Goodness? befitting a publication that should be passed from hand to hand many times in the years ahead. Our Society encourages the reprinting of any of these essays as long as their original source is clearly acknowledged.

Despite its many imperfections Honest to Goodness? contains much wisdom that we believe can make a valuable contribution to our human search for better interpersonal relations, better ways of living together within nations and among the peoples of the world; a better chance of developing the kinds of policies that we can all jointly pursue to save our endangered planet. These are big claims - but no other life-stance that we know fulfils them better. Stimulating reading.