The British Humanist Association (BHA), known since 2017 as Humanists UK, is a charitable organization in the United Kingdom that promotes Humanism and secularism. It was originally formed in 1896 as the Union of Ethical Societies. The Union was founded by American Stanton Coit who was inspired by the ethical culture movement in the United States. The Union sought to promote a moral alternative to religious belief, focusing on human reason, ethics, social justice, and philosophical naturalism.Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist, served as the President of the British Humanist Association from 1963 to 1965. Huxley was a leading figure in the mid-20th century evolutionary synthesis, and his tenure at the BHA was marked by his efforts to promote humanism as a "religion of life" that held the potential for a new, non-theistic global morality.