Dr Harry Stopes-Roe
1924-2014
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Vice President of Humanists UK
Dr Harry Stopes-Roe received a BSc and MSc in physics from Imperial College, London University, and a PhD in Philosophy from Cambridge University. He was a lecturer, then senior lecturer, in Science Studies at Birmingham University, work which led him to reject the idea of "God" and to seek an alternative basis for morality in Humanism. He was Chair and is now a Vice-President of Humanists UK, and has also been active in the Values Education Council and the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU, now known as Humanists International) for many years; for example, he chaired the working group that developed the IHEU "Minimum Statement" and delivered a paper on “Secure Foundations for Morality” at the 2006 IHEU conference “Is There a Global Bioethics?” .
He had a key role in the 1970s in developing Humanists UK's policy for 'objective, fair and balanced' education covering both religious and non-religious 'lifestances' - a term he invented and popularised.
Articles of interest to humanists include:
Mill's ethical problems and human nature