THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION

The RPA was formed in 1899 by a group of freethinkers led by Charles Albert Watts. Its aims are to argue for a rational approach to human problems, to suggest reasoned alternatives to religious dogmas, to advance a secular system of education, to defend freedom of thought and civil liberties, and to encourage activities in support of these aims. The RPA is one of the main organisations in. the humanist movement, alongside the British Humanist Association and the National Secular Society in particular, working on the basis that this life and this world are all we know and that the human dimension is the most important factor in every area of human thought and action. The RPA’s distinctive feature remains its attachment to the principles of rationalism, defined as the mental attitude which accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a system of philosophy and ethics verifiable by experience and independent of all arbitrary assumptions or authority. The RPA organises conferences and finances social surveys, and generally puts the point of view of rational humanism before the public and the authorities. But the RPA ’s main activity has always been the publication of periodicals and books. A regular paper has been published since 1885, first called the Literary Guide, then the Humanist, and since 1972 the New Humanist] this is a vehicle for free and critical comment on current issues, edited by Jim Herrick. An annual collection of essays was also published from 1884, first as the Agnostic Annual, then as the Rationalist Annual, and from 1968 to 1980 as Question; this was a forum for more serious and sustained discussion of rationalist topics.

Details of RPA membership and publications appear on the Inside back cover

PRESIDENT Professor Sir Hermann Bondi VICE-PRESIDENTS Professor Antony Flew, Professor Paul Kurtz

HONORARY ASSOCIATES

Professor Sir Alfred Ayer Professor Colin Blakemore H. J. Blackham Professor Marcel Boll Professor Sir Hermann Bondi Dr G. Bourne Brigid Brophy Senator A. Buisseret Dr S. Chandrasekhar Professor Bernard Crick Dr Francis Crick Professor Paul Edwards Professor Lionel Elvin Professor Sir Raymond Firth Professor Ronald Fletcher Professor Antony Flew

Professor Ernest Gellner Dr James Hemming Dr Christopher Hill Lord Houghton of Sowerby Professor Sir Fred Hoyle S. I. Hslung Dr H. Montgomery Hyde Professor Leopold Infeld Ludovlc Kennedy Professor Paul Kurtz Corliss Lamont Professor Sir Edmund Leach Professor Carl Lofmark John Maddox Professor John Maynard Smith George Melly Naomi Mitchlson

Dr Joseph Needham Professor Patrick Nowell-Smlth Kathleen Nott Dr Conor Cruise O’Brien Dr David Oppenheimer Mlle P. H. Pardon Professor Sir Karl Popper, CH Professor Margaret Schlauch Mrs Renée Short, MP Professor B. F. Skinner Dr V. M. Tarkunde A. J. P. Taylor Lord Willis The Baroness Wootton of Ablnger Baron Young of Dartlngton Professor J. Z. Young

Professor G. A. Wells (Chairman) I. R. Russell (Vice-Chairman) Nicolas Walter (Managing)

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dr Colin Campbell Antony Chapman Jim Herrick

COMPANY SECRETARY Nicolas Walter

Dr Roger Manvell David Pollock Dr D. J. Stewart