Articles
The Humanists' Failure
In the original Humanist Manifesto, the Sixth Point states, “We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of ‘new thought.’” And in its concluding remarks, states, “Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind.” The humanist has no thoughts for the eternal, for he does not believe anything is eternal [unless you ask him where all matter originated; the First Point in the Manifesto]; the humanist’s view of man’s life and purpose is “the good life,” which, by their own words, means “the complete realization of human personality” [the Eighth Point].
If that is still not clear, we go to the Humanist Manifesto II, where in the Sixth Point we find they believe this means all should have “The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce,” and they desire to remove all barriers that might “prohibit, by law or social sanction, sexual behavior between consenting adults,” and that all “individuals should be permitted to express their sexual proclivities and pursue their lifestyles as they desire.” [Emphasis is mine —SH] They declare that “traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species”; in other words, anything that keeps them from indulging in any fleshly desire, or which might cause them to feel shame for having done so — or even desiring to do so — is a bad thing and must be eliminated.
They will state plainly in the introduction to the Humanist Manifesto II, “Traditional moral codes [i.e., the morality that comes from God’s word] fail to meet the pressing needs of today and tomorrow.” Having rejected God’s ways as the standard for morality, they proclaim, “Ethics is autonomous and situational,” and, “While there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.” In other words, we must reject any religious teaching that restrains or forbids, and ethics then become what I want them to be, in whatever situation I find myself; and, God and His teachings cannot save any man or mankind, in general. The humanist demands that God’s will be replaced by human wisdom, and that human wisdom will eventually find the answer to all of life’s problems. WE just need to trust them and give them time!
I am tempted to sarcastically ask: “How’s that working for you?”
We have literally thousands of years of human history [they might say millions of years, which doesn’t help their case] and, yet, we find the problems of mankind are still the same as they have always been. No man has come up with a reasonable ‘solution’ to the problems of mankind. No ‘scientific method’ will discover one, and all the study in the world and for all the time we will ever walk this earth will not find an answer to man’s problems — outside of God’s word.
Humanism’s argument is that man is the answer to man’s problems, and in that one statement, his foolishness is revealed! One might as well say, “Since I am a man, I will create myself, and bring myself into existence, from absolutely nothing.” Man has not found an answer to the problems of mankind, but has only multiplied them and magnified them. The very idea that man will solve his own problems and save himself is the height of arrogance and foolishness.
Long ago, a very wise man wrote, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psa. 14:1). It is when man professes himself to be wise that he becomes a fool, and most often after he declares there is no such thing as God (cf. Rom. 1:18-22). Another wise man wrote, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes” (Prov. 12:15), and that is no less true when we are talking about the whole of mankind; when mankind thinks he is wise and he is right and his Creator is nonexistent, we have become fools of the lowest order.
The declaration of the humanist that “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves” only demonstrates the willful ignorance of the one who says so. Save ourselves from what? From ourselves? We are the cause of our problems! Though the humanist would deny it, God tells us that all the problems of mankind began not long after his creation, when the serpent [the devil] tempted Eve and she took of the forbidden tree (Gen. 3:1-6). As a result of their disobedience, God punished mankind and their sin brought death into the world that, up to that point, had not known it. The world God had created for man was one without death, or pain, or suffering; it was man that brought the ills of this world to himself, and no man could save himself — or the whole of mankind — by himself.
Though man was the cause of the problems of this world [death, pain, suffering, injustice, oppression, etc.], God alone provides the ‘solution’ and God alone has provided for man’s salvation, though he is certainly undeserving. In His mercy, God sent His Son to this world to live as a man in this sin-filled world and to die as a completely innocent man as the price for our wrongs, our selfish and self-centered thoughts and actions, and our rebellion against the very standard established by God for our own good. Though the whole of mankind was guilty of sin, God provided the means by which we may be called righteous once again, and be saved (Rom. 3:23-26).
To foolishly proclaim that we are going to save ourselves shows a tremendous display of arrogance, ignorance, and/or naïveté. Eliphaz was right in asking, “What is man, that he could be pure?” (Job 15:14); the wise writer was also right in asking, “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin’” (Prov. 20:9)? The questions answer themselves, for the wise writer will tell us, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Eccl. 7:20). A man covered from head to toe with mud will never be able to clean himself; a man floundering in the middle of an ocean will not rescue himself from his predicament; and mankind will never “save himself” from the problems of this world.
Humanism’s claim that we [mankind] will one day solve all this world’s problems and will one day know all there is to know is just as foolish as the atheist evolutionist who argues that, with enough time and space, matter could be created from nothing, evolve into living organisms, and eventually into an intelligent being — and this all by pure chance and without any outside power or intelligence to create it or even guide it along in its evolution. Science has already shown there has not been enough time or space for life to emerge from inanimate matter, much less matter from absolute nothingness. All the time that could ever be will not produce something from nothing, and all the time that can ever be will not allow for man to find a solution to this world’s problem or a way to “save himself.” That comes from God alone, and unless and until we acknowledge that fact, the problems will only multiply, and we will remain lost.
Don’t fall for the boastful, but false, claims of humanism; it is all bluster and bravado, but it has solved nothing and will solve nothing. Listen to your Creator — not any man and not even your own thoughts, ideas, or desires. — Steven Harper
