Why I Am a Humanist

Leslie Allan
This text is an edited transcript of Leslie Allan’s address to the Critical Thinkers Forum
on Sunday 6th October 2019 at the Unitarian Church Hall, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Published online: 20 April 2020

Copyright © 2020 Leslie Allan

In this address, Leslie Allan shares his early experiences and how they shape his
humanist outlook today. He then outlines what he considers to be the three core
principles underlying the humanist world view: reason and evidence, compassion
and equality, and autonomy and dignity. Allan illustrates the application of these
principles with historical and contemporary examples. He concludes by drawing
upon each of these principles to tease out what it means to live a good life; a life
of meaning and purpose.

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

1. My Early Life

Thank you for inviting me and for

your warm welcome. Today, I want to
share with you three things. First, I want
to say a little about how I became a
humanist—about what attracted me to
humanism. Next, I will share a little what
humanism means to me. I will outline
what I think are the three guiding
principles of humanism. Finally, I want to
explore briefly a humanist view of the
good life; what are the things that give
our lives meaning and purpose.

So, let me start by saying a little bit

about my background and my upbringing.
Sharing my story will illuminate how I
Presenter: Leslie Allan came to see myself as a humanist and an
atheist. I was born in Budapest, the capital
of Hungary. My mother fled Hungary with me as a refugee in 1957. I grew up with my
parents and my two siblings in a poor northern suburb of Melbourne. Even though life was a
struggle, I always found solace in books about the natural world. What first piqued my
curiosity were the stars and the planets. What were they made of? How many are there?
Even today, I’m still fascinated by this mysterious world of galaxies, neutron stars and
supernova.

After a while, I found there were other interesting things to learn about. I got
enthralled by the science of chemistry. What are atoms made of? How do these atoms
combine into the endless array of molecules that make up our ordinary day-to-day objects?
Even though my school was not well resourced, I was fortunate enough to be taught by
some wonderful and highly-committed teachers who encouraged me to go on with my
studies.

In my teens, I causally picked up a

magazine on electronics. I quickly became
fascinated with how transistors, diodes, and
other components combine to make up a
radio or a television. That led me to study
electronics at RMIT (now called RMIT
University), with electronics becoming my
first career. What intrigued me then and still
intrigues me today is how only four
fundamental physical forces combine with the
Attribution: By Silver Spoon (Own work) [CC0],
properties of an unseen but small number of via Wikimedia Commons
fundamental particle types to create the

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

dazzling complexity of the world we see. In all of my studies, what really stood out for me
was one key lesson: that by using the scientific method, we can make sense of the world.
We can understand what causes disease, what makes bodies attract and how humans
evolved on this planet.

As I found out later, it’s this

approach to understanding ourselves and
our world that characterizes a humanist
approach: this idea that the universe in all
its majesty and mystery is understandable
through rigorous scientific enquiry.

At High School, I was also

interested in Politics and Social Studies.
This was in the days when our Prime
Ministers included John Gorton, Gough
Anti-Vietnam War demonstration at Phillip Street Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. These were
Court, Sydney, NSW times of great political upheaval. Great
Attribution: The Tribune / SEARCH Foundation / CC BY
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
controversies at that time included our
participation in the Springbok tour:
whether we should compete with a nation that practices racism in sport. There were also
massive demonstrations about our involvement in the Vietnam War. Was this a just war?
And should we be spending billions of dollars on the space race to the Moon when children
are dying from want of food and medicine? These big moral and political questions of the
day occupied my thinking. Here again, I was taught by a couple of great teachers who
probed and challenged us to ask and try to answer these hugely thorny questions.

This active interest and participation in the

great social issues of the day was another early marker
for my latent humanist attitude. Humanists encourage
all of us to play a positive part in the social groups to
which we belong; our local communities, our state and
our nation. But more than that, humanists impress on
us that we are global citizens and that what we do at
the local level impacts people in faraway lands that we
will never see nor meet. For example, how we eject
pollutants into the air, manufacture and dispose of
plastics and buy more clothes from the fast-fashion
industry than we will ever wear impacts the child
growing up in Somalia and Bangladesh.

I’m so pleased to see how this humanist respect

for truth and science on the one hand and our Greta Thunberg school strike for climate
recognition that we are truly living in a global village in Attribution: Anders Hellberg / CC BY-SA
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
which we are all responsible for each other has been
picked up by the young people of today. I’m thrilled that millions of people all over the
world are taking the lead from 16-year-old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, and other
great young leaders. Through the United Nations and Humanists International, humanists

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

are campaigning for much greater international co-operation and collaboration to meet the
very real threats to human existence and human welfare.

But don’t think for a moment that humanists are only concerned about human
welfare. Don’t be fooled by the name, ‘Humanism’. From the Enlightenment, leading
humanists have been advocating taking
into account the welfare of animals in our
decision-making. You may have heard of
these seminal early humanist thinkers;
Henry Sidgwick, Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill. The person who started off the
modern animal rights movement in 1976
with his book, Animal Liberation [1976], is
humanist Peter Singer. Peter Singer is an
Australian philosopher and ethicist who
now teaches at Princeton University in
America. When it comes to how we treat
animals, what matters for a humanist is
not whether they can think, but whether
they can suffer. You may recognize that
insight as being formulated by that great
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) Enlightenment Utilitarian philosopher,
Attribution: Henry William Pickersgill / Public domain Jeremy Bentham.

Here again, the young people of today are taking the lead. I speak with many
under-thirties who are taking an active role campaigning against the suffering of livestock
that we see happening on an industrial scale. This is the humanist attitude in action. I see
these same young people actively working in the Effective Altruism movement. A humanist
recognizes that in trying to do the most good that we can do—trying to minimize the
suffering of humans and animals as much as possible—our resources are limited. With this
humanist approach, we are applying scientific principles and methods in working out where
we should spend our altruistic efforts for maximum impact. (See, for example, GiveWell at
www.givewell.org.)

I hope you are getting a flavour for why I’m attracted to a humanist approach to life.
I want to change gears a bit now and talk a little about my life after school. But to make
sense of that I need to say a little about my church life while at school. When I was 12 years
old and after an eight-week course of lessons, I received the Eucharist at our local Catholic
Church, St Christopher’s. Now, I can’t remember what led me to do that. Perhaps my devout
Catholic Aunt had a hand to play in that. I do remember, though, that after I received my
confirmation, I did not return to the Church.

Also, in my late teens, my step-father suddenly decided that our family is going to
attend the local Protestant Church, St Philip’s. I quiet enjoyed my time there, especially the
Sunday School lessons that were run by a delightful young lady. As suddenly as my
step-father decided we were starting at the church, he just as abruptly decided we were no
longer going. My step-father showed signs of various kinds of mental illness. One mental
malady was that he was paranoid, thinking at times that people were after him. I suspect

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

that it was some minor action by a church member that led him to abruptly cut all ties with
the church.

In all of this, as much as I liked the people in the church, I never really bought into
the key Christian teachings; that the world was created in six days, that Noah saved a select
few after a world-wide flood, that Jesus died for our original sin and rose from the dead on
the third day. For me, these teachings just plainly contradicted what we knew was possible
given our scientific view of the world and also just did not make philosophical sense.

In my late teens, I also started reading some of the seminal atheist and humanist
writers, such as Kit Mouat, Hector Hawton, Margaret Knight, Julian Huxley (grandson of
Thomas Henry Huxley, friend of Charles Darwin) and Bertrand Russell. That reading, along
with my interest in science, primed me for what was to happen next. Following High School,
I enrolled at RMIT. There I studied electronics for four years. In my class was a very
committed Christian, Gary. Gary and I were friends and we got on very well. During lunch
times and other breaks, we would get into some very vigorous discussions about religion. So
much so that it piqued my interest enough to enrol at La Trobe University for a degree
part-time. My main interests were philosophy and the history of religions. I studied there for
nine years while I worked
full-time and started a family. I
became interested in two key
areas in philosophy. Firstly,
epistemology; that is, the
philosophy of knowledge and
ethics, or moral philosophy.
With the former, we ask
questions such as: how do we
know what we do know and
how does the scientific method
work? In moral philosophy, we
enquire into the nature and
foundation for ethics, and how La Trobe University
we decide rationally the key Attribution: Phil Lees / CC BY-SA
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
moral questions of our time.
These questions still interest me today.

It was when I began my studies that I first joined our local humanist society,
Humanists Victoria. It was called the ‘Humanist Society of Victoria’ back then. We’ve only
recently changed our name. In the last four years or so, I’ve become active again. And that’s
because I’m passionate about getting our law makers to use reason and evidence when
deciding public policy and framing legislation. I’m also passionate about creating a society
where every human being can reach their potential. Humanists act to defend those who do
not have a voice, including the poor, our indigenous peoples and factory-farmed animals. As
a humanist, this is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

2. The Humanist Approach

OK. That’s a little about my background and what

attracted me to humanism. You may be asking yourself: ‘but
what exactly is a humanist approach to life and living and
how does it differ from other approaches?’ I think the
humanist approach can be summed up in these three
themes or principles.

1. reason and evidence

2. compassion and equality

3. autonomy and dignity

Image by
Clker-Free-Vector-Images
Let me expand on each of these three dimensions. from Pixabay

Reason and Evidence

The first thing to note is that humanists respect reason and evidence. But what does
that mean? Humanists think that it is through the use of logic and reason that we reliably
arrive at truths about ourselves and the universe. Conversely, we don’t consider intuition
and faith as reliable guides to knowledge. We think that our personal beliefs should align
with the evidence put to us. In the social sphere, we think that public policy should be
informed by the best scientific evidence we have available. Applying this principle puts into
serious question the effectiveness of pseudo-medical treatments such as iridology and
homeopathy. It also encourages us to get acting on climate change before it’s too late.

Applying the scientific method leads us to a naturalistic view of humans and the
universe. Science teaches us that the visible universe is some 14 billion years old, that there
are four fundamental forces of nature and that life evolved over some 3.5 billion years of
evolution on earth, with Homo sapiens first appearing some 200,000 thousand years ago.

That doesn’t mean that we know everything and that there are no deep mysteries
yet to be solved. Scientists are working on figuring out what happens inside a black hole,
how quantum entanglement is possible and what is the nature of dark matter and dark
energy. Perhaps the biggest and most elusive mystery is the nature of consciousness; how
do the 80 billion neurons that make up a normal living human brain give rise to the feeling
of love and the sensation of a red rose?

Humanists and atheists are sometimes thought of as joyless worshipers of cool, hard
reason with no appreciation of love, wonder, music and art. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Humanists stand in awe at the magnificent complexity of the universe, the beauty
of nature, the all-consuming power of love and the inspiration that drives art and music.

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

Compassion and Equality

The next humanist principle is compassion and equality. Regard for other human
beings and all other sentient creatures stands at the centre of the humanist outlook. Our
feelings of empathy and our drive to act altruistically are encoded in our genes and
reinforced through our upbringing. As Harvard University psychologist, Steven Pinker
[The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, 2012], described it, our desire
to help those who are suffering reflects the better angels of our nature.

But to whom ought we show our compassion? To our family? To our friends? Of
course. But who else? For a humanist, what marks a truly moral act is one in which we treat
people as equals; that is, where we treat people impartially. So, for a humanist, you ought
not get special treatment just because you are white, wealthy, heterosexual or male.
Treating people as equals is fundamental to what it is to act morally.

For humanists, this imperative to treat people with compassion and as equals did not
come from above or beyond. It is the result of our long evolutionary history in which we
evolved to form co-operative social groups. Let me illustrate this idea.

Imagine for a moment all of you here going on a holiday by sea. Your ship becomes
stranded on a desert island with none of the crew surviving. You are left with some food,
materials to make some shelter and the natural resources on the island. To survive
individually and as a group, what rules would you make to govern your behaviour? Would
you decide on the rule, ‘Kill your fellow survivors when you can get away with it’? Would
you choose, ‘Steal from the food store when no one is looking’? Would you decide on,
‘Break your promises when you can’t be bothered keeping them’?

Of course, the answer is obvious

when you think about it. See, for a
humanist, there is nothing mysterious or
out-of-this-world about the moral rules
that we want others to live by. They are
simply the rules that we must all conform
to if we are to get the mutual benefits of
co-operation; for us to survive and thrive.

As civilizations have progressed,

the range of people to which we show
compassion and equal regard has
expanded. Slaves, women, gays and
lesbians and our indigenous peoples are
more and more treated as equals. This
universalist ethos is best expressed in the
Golden Rule, ‘Do unto others as you
Attribution: By Djembayz [CC BY-SA 3.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], would have them do unto you’, and in the
from Wikimedia Commons
Utilitarian principle, ‘Act so as to bring

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

about the most happiness and the least suffering’. Since the 1970s, this feeling of universal
regard is continuing to expand bit by bit as we include non-human animals within our circle
of care.

At their noblest, the world’s religions actively promote

this idea of compassion for all, regardless of a person’s
religious belief, ancestry, gender and sexual preference. The
Golden Rule can be found in the holy texts of all of the major
world views. This is wonderfully illustrated in the Golden Rule
Poster [McKenna, 2001]. Unfortunately, as history teaches us,
many of these world views have also divided us into an
in-group and an out-group; the sheep and the goats, the
saved and the infidel, the chosen race and the outcast.
Humanists actively work to reduce this blind prejudice—this
sectarianism that divides us—to build strong bridges between
community groups and nations.

Autonomy and Dignity

The third humanist principle that I want to outline here is autonomy and dignity.
With this principle, we affirm that everyone should be able to go about their lives without
unnecessary restrictions by the government and other people. We ought to be given our
autonomy—the freedom to do what we want—to the maximum extent possible.
Constraints on our freedom should occur only when our actions restrict the freedom of
others or cause them harm. For example, it is this principle that motivated humanists for
many decades to campaign against laws that criminalised homosexuality.

Humanists regard human freedom as an ideal because each of us is different. Each of

us has our own unique talents and dispositions, drives and values. Global research by
Ortiz-Ospina et al [Happiness and Life Satisfaction, Our World in Data, 2017] shows that it is
only by exercising our freedom that we can fully put our special capabilities and plans
towards creating our own happiness.

It is this capacity for happiness and suffering that also gives us our inherent dignity.
Each of us is a unique sentient being; a universe in our own right. Each of us is a locus of
consciousness. One person’s pleasure and pain is of no greater or lesser value than any
other’s. It is this belief in the inherent dignity of each person and of their worth as
autonomous agents of their own future that humanists have campaigned hard for various
legislative reforms. A recent example here is our fight for a person’s legal right to die if they
are suffering from intolerable and unavoidable pain. In a similar vein, humanists the world
over campaigned for gays and lesbians to have the freedom to marry whomever they chose.

It is in the name of this principle also that humanists historically campaigned against
slavery and, much later, for full civil rights for women and blacks. For a humanist, even if
there is no higher power looking over us, fighting for freedom and the inherent dignity of all,
regardless of race, gender, social position and sexual preference, is worth doing.

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

3. The Good Life

I now want to say a little about the humanist conception of the good life. What is a
worthwhile life and how ought we live it? The three humanist principles I’ve just described, I
think, give us a way to think about what it is to lead a good life. First, let me distinguish the
humanist view of a good life from other ways of looking at the question.

You could think that

asking the question, ‘What is a
good life?’, is like asking, ‘What
is a good knife?’ How do we
answer, ‘What is a good knife?’
Well, by first asking, ‘What is the
function of a knife?’ It’s to cut. A
good knife, then, is a knife that
cuts well. That is, it has an easy
to grip handle, has a sharp
Images by Clker-Free-Vector-Images and Peggy blade, and so on. The salient
und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
point here is that what makes
for a good knife is determined by the purpose of a knife. And a knife’s purpose is not given
by the knife itself. The purpose of a knife is external to the knife itself.

Now, you may think that humans are like that. You may think that a good human life
is determined by the function—the purpose—of a human. And like knives, the purpose of a
human is dictated to humans from outside.

In contrast to this way of thinking, a humanist thinks that human beings determine
their own purpose; that humans have no function that is dictated from above or beyond.
This thinking is in line with the humanist principle of autonomy and dignity that I shared
with you. Each of us has plans and projects that we wish to pursue. Some embark on a
lifetime of service to the poor and dispossessed. Some want to build the best model
railways ever. Some devote their lives to finding a cure for autism or to discovering what’s
inside a black hole or to bringing pleasure to others through music. Global studies by
Ortiz-Ospina et al [Happiness and Life Satisfaction, Our World in Data, 2017] on happiness
and well-being show that the happiest, most contented people are those who can
determine their own life trajectory without it having dictated to them. So, for a humanist,
this is part of what it is to lead a good life.

The second principle I mentioned, compassion and equality, complements the value
of a life that is lived pursuing one’s own plans and interests. To live a ‘good’ life—that is, a
life that has moral value and not simply one that satisfies its owner—is to live a life of
compassion and justice. For a humanist, though, living a good life does not require you to
live like a saint, sacrificing your happiness and well-being entirely for the benefit of others.
That would be to deprive yourself of your own dignity and value. To live a good life,
however, does mean alleviating the sufferings of others where you can and fighting for
justice—the equal treatment of others—where you see people being treated unfairly. Again,
research by Ortiz-Ospina et al [Happiness and Life Satisfaction, Our World in Data, 2017] and
Helliwell et al [World Happiness Report 2019, 2019] shows that for people whose lives are

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

deeply embedded within their families and communities, they live more fulfilling and
satisfying lives. Living in service to others not only enriches their lives, but also your own.

The first humanist principle, reason and evidence, also plays an important role in
living the good life. This may sound counterintuitive. What has reasoning correctly got to do
with living a moral life? Let me give you an example. In 2017, BBC [The Dying Officer Treated
for Cancer with Baking Soda, Yeo et al] reported on what happened to Naima, a cancer
patient. Naima foregoes cancer treatment for an expensive quack cure. She dies
prematurely, robbing her of another few years of productive life and robbing her parents of
their daughter. Her untimely death was good for no one; not for her, not for her family and
not for all of her friends who cared about her. [See also Alternative Medicine Kills Cancer
Patients, Study Finds, Real Clear Science, Pomeroy, 2017]

Here is another example of how ignoring reason and evidence detracts from living a
good life. I run Humanists Victoria’s Ex-Religious Support Network (ESN). In my work, I hear
all too often stories from people who left a very strict and controlling religious sect. To their
deep regret and sadness, they feel that much of their life had been wasted. Within the sect,
they were not allowed to have birthday parties, to dance and sing, search the internet and
to go to university. The imposition of these irrational religious constraints, they felt, stole
from them their childhood and early adult years.

Perhaps the most alarming example on a global scale of how turning a blind eye to
reason and evidence can rob us of a good life is our current climate catastrophe. If the
world’s governments continue to ignore the
scientific evidence, with the inevitable result
that our climate passes the global warming
tipping point, billions of people will suffer.
Billions will be impacted by increased
storms, bush fires and floods, food and
water shortages, rising sea levels and wars
over scarce resources.

To finish up on a more positive note,

I want to emphasize that for a humanist,
there is not one way and one way only of
living a good life. We each have our own
talents and drives to make this world a
better place and in a way that is uniquely
ours. Humanism is a truly pluralist world
Attribution: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
view that cherishes diversity, both in
thought and action. Humanists are striving for a more tolerant world in which all of us can
reach our potential while respecting the rights and freedoms of our fellow world citizens.

So, today I shared with you what attracted me to the humanist outlook; principally,
its respect for reason and science and its deep engagement with the world. I outlined what I
see as the three key principles of humanism—reason and evidence, compassion and
equality, and autonomy and dignity. I ended with the humanist conception of what it is to
lead a good life. At its heart, it’s a life in which we continually search for the truth and strive
to enrich the lives of others. Thank you.

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Leslie Allan Why I Am a Humanist

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<https://vichumanist.org.au/humanism-intro/what-is-humanism/>.

Helliwell, J., R. Layard and J. Sachs 2019. World Happiness Report 2019, URL =
<https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/> New York: Sustainable Development
Solutions Network.

Humanists Victoria 2019. Ex-Religious Support Network (ESN), Humanists Victoria, URL =
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<https://scarboromissions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/item_34_lg.jpg>
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<https://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/2017/08/14/alternativ
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Singer, Peter 1976. Animal Liberation, New York: Granada.

Yeo, Dr Giles and Tristan Quinn 2017. The Dying Officer Treated for Cancer with Baking
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