H. Clare Callow

Australian Rationalist Society History

Beginning

In November 1906, six young men filed into a small study in Ormond College at Melbourne University. They were of different ages and backgrounds, some lecturers at the university and some students, but they all had one thing in common; an interest in the logical and rational examination of the world around them.

Ormond is a Presbyterian institution, and it was somewhat daring for these men to meet in a study within its hallowed halls, for what they had met to discuss was the founding of a Melbourne chapter of the controversial, atheistic Rationalist movement.

Rationalism, which comes under the broader philosophical heading of ‘freethought,’ argued against the extremes of religion and the failure of governments to remove the social inequities inherent in the traditional, religious-based system.

Rationalism has a history that has been traced back as far as 1646, although the more formal founding of the movement began in the nineteenth century during the scientific and philosophical enlightenment. The social revolution of the late 1800s saw education for the masses, Darwinism, natural and geological discoveries which gave lie to the Bible, and the rise of Marxism and socialism. Early rationalists faced a Church which encouraged superstition and blind belief and had a stranglehold on society, with close ties to the state, which prevented reform. Though the church and state had control over religious philosophy taught in schools, the nineteenth century saw something never before seen – the average man on the street could now read, and had access to a mass of scientific knowledge. Freethought societies gained popularity and strength across the globe. Charles Bradlaugh arranged groups of secularists into a national movement in England, and Australian secularists spread their thoughts through a newspaper.

These first rationalists demanded that the clergy provide proof before expecting the public to subjugate themselves to the church’s will. They took full advantage of the education of the masses by printing cheap editions of scientific and philosophical publications, founding the Rationalist Press Association,[1] which became the focus for rationalist effort and philosophical thought in anglo countries for over a hundred years.

Though the RPA had a presence here in the colonies, Australian rationalists had no group of their own to represent their thoughts – unlike the churches. The meeting in the study at Ormond had been called just one week after Melbourne’s Protestants had organised a ‘monster town hall meeting,’ during which they had called for the government to return the Bible to state schools. The feeling at the time was fervently religious. Churches whipped up support and emotions in huge public meetings, and evangelists from other countries would tour to give their support. For non-believers living in an age of intolerance, the time had come for something to be done.

The man who had called the meeting of the young Melbourne rationalists that November was John Latham, a tutor in residence at Ormond. Latham had called the meeting to promote rationalism, which had no organised form in Melbourne. It is likely the young rationalist was frustrated with the continued control the church in Australia had over education, particularly with his experiences teaching logic and philosophy in a religious institution.

He was born 1877 to a religious family, with a father who was a tinsmith in Ascot Vale. He won a scholarship to Scotch College and then Melbourne University, which, in a world with no state secondary schools, was the only way a working class boy could have expected to achieve an education at the time. He achieved an Arts degree in 1896, and went on to study law after a brief stint of teaching at Hamilton College, in the country. In 1904 Latham was admitted to the Bar and lived as resident tutor 1904-1907 at Ormond, teaching logic and philosophy.

Standing in a friend’s over-warm study at the beginning of summer, the earnest young man did not know exactly how far he would be willing to go to defend civil rights. Latham would walk from the meeting into a successful future. He would move out of Ormond College in 1907 but still tutor. Eventually, after establishing a law practice, Latham would become a  King’s Council at a notably young age, and gain all the luxuries accompanying the life of a successful lawyer. Strangely enough, it would be Latham’s dedication to rationalism and honesty that would lead him to give up the life membership he had earned of the Rationalist Press Association when he felt his position as a High Court Judge demanded impartiality to all causes. Latham died in 1964 knighted, after a long political career and was a diplomat and statesman, chief justice, a long way from a tinsmith’s son who had a stammer as a child.