Humanism - What Is It?

Proceeding on our journey would be presumptuous without pausing to define an important term which we’ll surely see again and again in my blogs.  That term is humanism.

The definition of humanism is kind of slippery.  It’s hard to grab hold of it in its entirety.  But there’s no doubt that the various brands of humanism present the same basic ideas.  They range from mildly active (secularists) to socially dangerous (religious humanists – having anti-Christian doctrines) to very dangerous (philosophical humanists).  The latter develop materialistic philosophies and encourage social revolution to bring their godless ideas to fruition.  Karl Marx would be a good example of this class of humanist.  Admittedly, these definitions are very general but do serve the purpose of painting a broad picture of humanism.

History per se is not our purpose in this blog, however, the importance of clarifying humanism makes it obligatory if we are to understand what I’m talking about when I use the term.

So, here we go.  Hang with me.  I’ll only hit the highlights.   First of all, don’t think that humanism is any kind of a philosophy of life that just popped up within the recent past.  It goes way back, but let’s stop with the Middle Ages.  Belief in God and the Bible was predominant then but, sadly enough, its tenants were maintained in the hands of a largely repressive and dictatorial church.  From the darkness of that period men desired intellectual freedom and began to abandon the restraints of the church.  It progressed into a period called the Renaissance (Born Again) that spanned roughly from the 1300’s to the 1600’s.  There was a virtual revolution in knowledge, science and the arts.  Along with their devotion to God men’s faith in their own capabilities greatly increased.  Thus began a humanistic movement in which man’s faith in himself and his abilities out-compassed his faith in God.  The result was the birth of Renaissance Humanism.  Starting with a combination of human knowledge along with divine revelation there grew a philosophical union of Christianity and humanistic principles. 

With the passing of years humanism left belief in God behind entirely and replaced it with man’s belief in himself.  This belief was greatly advanced in modern times with Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) works among which On The Origin Of Species had the most impact.  He set forth in convincing terms (at the time) that all life (which includes man) materialistically evolved by chance (he called it "natural selection") over millions of years from primordial cell structures.  This idea fit perfectly into the humanist’s philosophy and spread across the world continuing even to this day.

The Humanist Manifesto III states:  “Thus engaged in the flow of life, we aspire to this vision with the informed conviction that humanity has the ability to progress toward its highest ideals. The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.” (underlining mine).

So, here he is.  A self proclaimed evolved animal without God.  He thinks he can control his own destiny.  And here’s what’s scary:  his agenda can reach to take God out of your life and pull you down to his level.  Now do you know why I think convincing you that evolution is pure fantasy is important?

“. . . since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done”. (Rom. 2:28).  Read the verses in the Bible that follow,  to see what a godless person is capable of.