Harold Rafton

From Philosopedia

Rafton, Harold Robert (20th Century)

A scientist, Rafton in 1954 was President of the Humanist Fellowship of Boston, as well as a member of its board of directors. He was vice president of the American Humanist Association at the time Priscilla Robertson was fired as editor of The Humanist. In fact, he and John Kirk were the ones who moved that she be terminated. It was a time during which the board was concerned that the magazine was moving in a more topical or issues-oriented direction rather than being philosophically oriented and featuring articles which explained the principles of humanism.

Whenever asked if he believed in a Supreme Being, Rafton was known to answer, “Yes, Mankind.”

Mrs. Helen Rafton, his wife, was a member of the American Humanist Association.

Rafton wrote The Roman Catholic Church and Democracy (1951), What Do Roman Catholic Colleges Teach? (1954), and What Can We Believe?

Rafton at Harvard

The Harvard Crimson published the following story (11 January 1962), headlined HUMANIST BLASTS BELIEF IN GOD(S):

"Humanism is a fresh breeze that blows away the stage props of religion," Harold R. Rafton '10 told Harvard Humanists last night.

Among the "stage props" Rafton listed were "gods - single and triple, mother goddesses, ghost gods, son gods, pregnant virgins, demons, and that auxiliary cleaning establishment, purgatory."

Encouraged by the laughter greeting his allusion to pregnant virgins, he followed with a garbled version of the jingle that traditionally goes: "Holy Mother, I do believe/That without sin thou didst conceive;/And now, I pray, in thee believing/That I may sin without conceiving."

A director of the American Humanist Association, Rafton urged that men renounce their belief in a God whose existence cannot be proven and the expectation of a happily-eve-after life in heaven.

Instead, he advocated acceptance of the humanist belief that man can improve society through his own efforts. The greatest obstacle to progress, Rafton claimed, is man's underestimation of his intellectual and moral powers.

"Peace of mind and peace on earth can be attained when we do not set one man above another," he added, emphasizing that humanist belief in the fundamental equality of all men.

Humanists are experimentalists, Rafton pointed out. Freed from an "ox-cart religion in a jot ago," They "don't have to stick with a dogma," he said.

Rafton, the author of What Can We Believe? billed his talk "Life Without God - An introduction to Humanism."

The Humanist group at Harvard was organized early this term.