Humanism and Christianity

1
Humanism and Christianity

• Absolute truth belongs only to one class of
  humansthe class of absolute fools.
• Ashley montagu

2
Definition

• Humanism is a philosophy, world view, or life
  stance based on naturalism--the conviction that
  the universe or nature is all that exists or is
  real
• Humanism serves, for many humanists, some of the
  psychological and social functions of a religion,
  but without belief in deities, transcendental
  entities, miracles, life after death, and the
  supernatural.
• Humanists seek to understand the universe by
  using science and its methods of critical
  inquiry--logical reasoning, empirical evidence,
  and skeptical evaluation of conjectures and
  conclusions--to obtain reliable knowledge

3
Defintions Part II

• Humanists affirm that humans have the freedom and
  obligation to give meaning, value, and purpose to
  their lives by their own independent thought,
  free inquiry, and responsible, creative activity
• Humanists believe that humans can live moral,
  happy, and productive lives on the basis of human
  reason and experience, without relying on the
  supernatural.
• Humanists believe in naturalistic ethics, that
  humans are the ultimate source of morals, values,
  purposes, and meanings. Moral values find their
  source in human experience ethics stem from
  human need and interest the purpose and meaning
  of life are what we make it to be.

4
Reason Versus Faith

• Faith weakens the intellect by destroying the
  value of reasoned and empirical thinking.
• Faith promotes dogmatism, since there is no
  method by which one can use faith to decide among
  different points of view or even between truth
  and falsehood.
• Faith frequently results in censorship, because
  if contrary evidence might induce doubt, faith
  holds that it must be suppressed--it obviously
  can't be fought by using reason, since faith does
  not use reason.
• Is there any way to justify belief and thus have
  reliable knowledge? There is only one way known
  to us the scientific method. We can justify
  belief by performing empirical studies, using
  logical reasoning, and conforming to the
  principles of statistical inference.
• We have no reliable knowledge about the
  supernatural and cannot rely on it. Humanists
  therefore accept what science says is true about
  our world. This includes evolution

5
Humanist Manifesto

• The Humanist Manifesto II makes that clear As
  nontheists, we begin with humans, not God,
  nature, not deity. Humans are responsible for
  what we are or will become. No deity will save
  us we must save ourselves (1973, p. 16).
• Promises of salvation are illusory and harmful,
  ethics is situational, and sexual activity
  between consenting adults is acceptable no
  matter who or what is involved. Sounds like vice
  is nice propaganda, doesnt it? Abortion,
  euthanasia, homosexuality, and even what some
  call the last tabooincestare acceptable
  according to humanism. As one author put it
  While humanity did not arise from the beasts,
  Humanism certainly stoops to their level

6
God is the Alien

• Paul Kurtz, former editor of The Humanist,
  addressed the subject of Christian humanism and
  observed Humanism cannot in any fair sense of
  the word apply to one who still believes in God
  as the source and Creator of the universe.
  Christian Humanism would be possible only for
  those who are willing to admit that they are
  atheistic Humanists. It surely does not apply to
  God-intoxicated believers (1973, p. 177).
  Humanist writer
• Corliss Lamont has gone so far as to state
  Passing to the New Testament, we see plainly
  that its theology, taken literally, is totally
  alien to the Humanist viewpoint (1977, p. 50).

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Doctrine of Humanist Manifesto

• Religious Humanists regard the universe as
  self-existing and not created.
• Humanism believes that man is a part of nature
  and that he has emerged as the result of a
  continuous process. (evolution)
• Moral values derive their source from human
  experience.  Ethics is autonomous and
  situational, needing no theological or
  ideological sanction.
• Traditional religions inhibit humans from
  experiencing their full potentialities.
• We can discover no divine purpose or providence
  for the human species.  We are responsible for
  what we are or will become.  No deity will save
  us - we must save ourselves.

8
Socialism and Humanism

• the strength of Socialism consists largely in its
  protest against existing social wrongs to which
  the Church is likewise opposed but which can be
  finally righted only by the universal rule of
  Christ. ...
• Socialism is vitally defective in that it places
  the physical above the spiritual needs of
  mankind. It is, as a philosophy, definitely
  materialistic. It insists that better social
  conditions will produce better men

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Socialsim a serious Protest

• Socialism is... a serious protest against the
  social wrongs and cruelties of the age, against
  the defects of the present economic system,
  against special privilege and entrenched
  injustice, against prevalent poverty, and hunger,
  and despair....
• social gospel" which discards the fundamental
  doctrines of Christianity and substitutes a
  religion of good works but a true Gospel of
  grace is inseparable from a Gospel of good works

10
Similarities

• There are many similarities between Christianity
  and Socialism, both ideologies founded by Jews
  who in their own lifetimes were hated by the
  authorities and had to flee to other countries.
  Marxism has its own old and new testaments Das
  Kapital and State and Revolution respectively.
  There are direct comparisons between the letters
  of the apostles and those books written by exiles
  to believersin other countries giving advice
  etc. such as Lenin's What is to be done.

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a new way of thinking

• We both want to change the world for the better,
  eliminate poverty of both lifestyle and health
  (even though Christ said that the poor would
  always be with us), restore and improve the
  natural environment and bring an end to wars.
  Even though we disagree on homosexuality, sex
  before marriage and abortion,
• As a Socialist I have to add that I think that at
  worst Christianity gives succour to the moral
  majority and at best is a comfort to people in
  old age.
• In the words of the International
• This is the essential thought of Socialism only
  we can save ourselves and only we can do it for
  ourselves. The choice before people at the start
  of this new century is between Socialism and
  capitalist barbarism, and sadly, spiritual ideas
  will have to wait for the time being.