Poor David Hume is dying fast, but with more real cheerfulness and good humor and with more real resignation to the necessary course of things, than any whining Christian ever dyed with pretended resignation to the will of God. – Adam Smith
Welcome to The Conservative Humanist Association.
See the Launch at Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham: Richard Dawkins
There is a great tradition of free thought in the Conservative Party. Many leading Conservative thinkers have not required religious belief or superstition to define their lives or their political views: Hayek, Popper, Friedman and, indeed, Adam Smith.
We are delighted that Conservative Central Office has recognised that many Conservatives – including several members of the shadow cabinet and many (if not the majority) of Conservative MPs – have no religious faith.
The creation of the Conservative Humanist Association means that all three major UK political Parties now have associations aligned with the British Humanist Association. We hope that all UK political parties – including Parties active in the devolved regions – will also recognise that the majority of our people want a more secular political system. Politics and religion do not mix. Northern Ireland, the Middle East and the Balkans provide very tangible proof of that.
We need more and more Conservatives to come out of the closet and proclaim their lack of faith – to make clear that there is no need to have religious faith in order to hold strong political ideas and to take principled ideological stances. Most politicians – despite what the Press might have us believe – enter politics because they wish to improve our society. However they differ on the means to achieve a better society.
The framework theory of the modern State sees government as having two basic roles: to guarantee the stability and security upon which, by common consent, both the free market and wellbeing depend; and, much more controversially, to establish a framework of support and incentive that enables and induces individuals and organisations to act in ways that fulfil not merely their own self-interested ambitions but also their wider social responsibilities. Oliver Letwin
Therefore, just as religious people have no monopoly on morality nor should they have a strangle-hold on our institutions of state. The United Kingdom has the chance to become the first truly secular state. There is an opportunity for all politicians to focus on what is great about this Kingdom – our commitment to democracy, tolerance, decency and the rule of law. But, in particular, there is an opportunity for Conservatives – with our focus on individual freedom and choice – to create a real dynamic for change in our civil society.
Hayek, Popper, Friedman, Smith and many other Conservative thinkers have argued very effectively about the importance of individualism and minimal state intervention to create more effective economies and societies. Religions are collectives – irrational collectives – that get in the way of progress. One only has to recall the Archbishop of Canterbury’s nonsense about Sharia law having a role in our judicial process to realise that irrational collectives can potentially damage our society.
Please join us and contribute to our discussions. Click on the blog page to read the latest posts and debates.
“We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell.” –Karl Popper
