Think about your own internal belief system: you are either anchored in a constant that has clarity or you are anchored in a chaos that produces confusion. Most would anchor their beliefs in order and clarity so as to not be carried away by every new fad and trend that comes their way, but surprisingly, most, either by ignorance or a flat out denial of the ridiculous concepts and ideas emerging in philosophies that are so far removed from common sense and reason, adopt beliefs that guide their lives, many of which lead them down a path of destruction.
When we speak of humanism, we are referring to the philosophies that have inundated just about every sphere of influence including the Christian church. To understand what the full picture of humanism is and it's profound impact on the culture, we must first take a look at what humanism is, what caused the advent of humanism, and the men who carried its torch.
Humanism is defined as a philosophy that places the emphasis on man rather than the Divine or God. It stresses the goodness of man, his or her potential and value, common needs, and it seeks man's ingenuity/innovation to solve man's problems rather than God and His Word which has always been the standard practice for millennia. Consider what is stated from the American Humanist website,
"Humanism is a progressive life stance that without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity." Wikipedia defines Humanism as it "emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition." There are many branches of humanism from Christian humanism to modern humanism to secular humanism to religious humanism. All at their core, however, is a worldview devoid of God and soul that shapes not only your thinking but your behavior as well.
Humanism started in the mid-18th century when men like Rousseau came onto the European scene and challenged the way men think. No longer was God or the supernatural considered; man now had to rethink his old archaic ideas and concepts, his old orthodoxy. Even the meaning of "meaning" had to be questioned. Man now had to question everything because he had evolved and he must be out with the old and in with the new. This new age was called "The Age of Enlightenment." Anyone who has taken a philosophy class knows this. This new age however was contending for the battle of our minds and it did a great job destroying orthodox concepts. Dave Breese in his book, Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave, states it so eloquently, "until perhaps the middle of the last century, if a person in the West called himself "religious" it meant something. He would normally have been an orthodox Protestant, an orthodox Catholic, or an orthodox Jew. There was a well-accepted general understanding as to what those words meant. The Bible was the authoritative book, the government was to be respected, order in society was to be kept-that's the way it was" (p. 90). As America was generally a free country founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs, this unfortunately all changed with the advent of humanism and the age of enlightenment. It was only a matter of time before this philosophy found its way onto the eastern shores and universities. Today its tentacles reach far and wide and just about every university and college teach this core curriculum. But not only do you see this teaching in universities and colleges but we now can see this teaching in our very churches; out with the old, in with the new. Three men specifically had such a profound impact on the culture and our ways of thinking that their ideas and philosophies still rule in men's minds even though their corpses lie dead in the ground. The first man started a new concept of rationalism that swept through like a tsunami and carried with it the essential tenants of the faith. This new wave of rationalism founded by Julius Wellhausen created what is called Religious Liberalism, and out of his school of thought came a 'higher criticism"which invaded both religious and secular circles.
Before Wellhausen came onto the scene, the Bible was generally accepted as inerrant, infallible, and Divinely inspired. The Bible was completely dependable and applicable for all matters of life. Man's reason was incorrect and could not be trusted therefore he must rely on scripture as a guide for his life and conduct. After Wellhausen, man's reason was to be trusted, not the Bible. Man was to question everything with his "higher criticism." The saying "God is dead," coined by Friedrich Nietzsche, has infiltrated the minds of so many because of this rationalism and higher criticism of Julius Wellhausen (Wellhausen just piggybacked off Nietzsche). He insisted that the Bible was not Divinely inspired, but rather a collection of human documents from which we get the liberal teaching of the Documentary Hypothesis that litters just about every college textbook and public education program. I know because I took a college class on ancient medieval history and the textbook used was called Cultures of the West. In that textbook, the documentary hypothesis was illustrated with the use of four men labeled with a single letter who wrote the first five books of the Bible. This liberal teaching that denies the divine inspiration of the Bible and denies Moses wrote the Pentateuch, centers around man and how he has evolved from a polytheistic worship to monotheistic worship, the emphasis being man rather than God. These radical ideas infused with darwinian evolution would go undetected to an untrained eye. Ironically, Wellhausen was an Old Testament scholar and a theologian which exposes the fact that you can't even trust a theologian at times! Wellhausen's ideas "produced a colossal change within the church by presenting to the christian community a new, and he would say better, way of understanding the Bible" (Breese 91). Wellhausen, of course, flattered men's egos with his philosophy of rationalism and human reason. With the advent of his anti-revelational liberalism came a cold wind of the other humanistic philosophies such as Darwinism and Marxism. Each at the core of these humanistic beliefs lies human reason (rationalism), not Divine revelation. Human reasoning, which is subject to constant chaos, confusion, and change, is now the anchor of many unsuspecting people. Many leaders in churches, colleges, and universities, cooperated with the rationalist theologians and became liberal humanists themselves, and these very men are now teaching young children and adults how to live. Among Wellhausen's thinking that so impacted not only the christian church but the culture as well, came another seminal thinker to fill the vacuum and his name was Soren Kierkegaard. As one philosophy died, along came another and promised utopia through another form of humanism.
"Soren Kierkegaard gave the world existentialism and he gave the church what theologians call neoorthodoxy" (Breese 210). Yet Kierkegaard wrote many things that are very hard to understand, but his influence had a profound impact and changed the way in which reality is understood. He redefined concepts such as rationality and faith, "his beguiling speculations about philosophy and religion immediately produced a new intellectual percolation and a new set of fascinating table-talk subjects for the thinkers and the pseudo-intellectuals of the world" (p. 210). Neoorthodoxy, which few understood, became the assumptions behind many a preacher. Existentialism, which no one understood either, became a path to the meaning of life, yet few found that meaning. Kierkegaard's internal self was filled with chaos as he was, "frequently at odds with himself, stormy, frustrated, unfulfilled, and melancholy" (211). He wrote a dissertation, The concept of Irony, with generous acknowledgments to Socrates, and he wrote another treatise titled, Truth is Subjectivity. He argued for passion over objective truth, and we all know passion is relative. Kierkegaard hated the crowd as he stated, "the crowd is the untruth," and so, he believed in the individual. His lack of lucidity and clarity left many of his followers in total chaos and confusion. The frustration they felt was confirmed by the very fact that not only did Kierkegaard believe certain things but he denied them as well. Kierkegaard also "attacked the traditions of theology, ethics, and metaphysics, saying that they were all self-deceptions" (215). This diffusion of thinking went from rational to irrational, and reason gave way to feeling, and thus emerged a philosophical and theological self-contradiction as truth was repudiated. This is existentialism or simply put, nihilism; nothing in the world has any real meaning therefore truth is not important, neither is morality. This kind of belief is tailored for the atheist, of course, who does as he wills, "the only right is what is right for you, and the only wrong is that which produces pain or inconvenience for you. There is no law, no principle, no proper course of action of any kind" (Breese 217). Can we not see this attitude playing out in so many people's lives. As we think, so as we behave: you only have one life so go with the flow man! Certainly this philosophy had its roots in the rebellious youth of the 1960s which destroyed the culture and the values so important to many. Still, this very existential thought is promulgated widely in most universities and colleges and "while composed minds would agree that it is a form of insanity, it has become the most pervasive philosophy of our time.....and there are few college students among the millions on university campuses who have not been infected by the permissiveness and the poison of existentialism" (217). You would think that most common-sense thinking individuals would call this nonsense, but yet, once again, we see so-called enlightenment or humanism leading many down a slippery slope of experiential bliss. We can thank another man, who moved from truth and reality to circumstantial experience and feelings, for eradicating objective facts and truth from the classroom of just about every school and college. His name was John Dewey. His humanist concepts revolutionized the entire education system from simple facts to experience and has left in its wake a culture conditioned to seek experience rather than Truth leaving the culture open to all kinds of delusions.
John Dewey, the man by which we get the decimal system, ironically hated facts or dogma. The irony being how can a man who hates facts design a decimal system of precise measurements? As in classical education where a student learns the facts or objective truth, he/she is now taught self-actualization. Everything is fluid and everything changes, therefore the student is taught to think about how he feels about everything, including simple basic facts that are not subject to emotional interpretation. Modern education is really Deweyism, and Dewey advanced the godlessness of society by using Darwin/Freud/Kirkengaurd postulates as the core curriculum that is used in just about every college and university. This kind of teaching obviously molds the minds of young people, and why not start in school to shape their minds as public education is a tool to influence the world. John Dewey wrote plenty of books so you would think that he knew a lot, but in reading his books, you can never quite pin the guy down as to what he believes. According to Dewey, since everything changes and is fluid, why not teach a form of pragmatism and experimentalism? Students are taught experience and interaction so they can be asked "how do you feel about that?" The agenda behind this was/is to groom them to go out into the world and create social change. This kind of thinking feeds into an idealistic mindset that is not grounded in Truth. After all, according to Dewey, Truth is out there, but it can't be found, and so, a person is left to a circumstantial belief. Dave Breese once again states this succinctly, "Dewey came to see reality as change, emergence, and development, rather than as a static and fixed thing that is foundational and unalterable" (156). Dewey's disdain for facts propelled the education of human experience (subjectivism) and his/her impact on the world for that is the only thing that matters, "truth was not to be found in static propositions but rather in the confirming reality of social fulfillment" (Breese 157). A perfect example of Dewey's ridiculous concepts is in the gender of humans. A male is born with one X and one Y chromosome. A female is born with two X chromosomes. These facts can not be refuted, but according to Dewey, the facts don't matter, what matters is how you feel about it and has resulted in gender reassignment. Today, it's what ever you want to be and anything goes. How have so many believed such nonsense and foolishness? Dewey's philosophy that we should not concern ourselves with Truth but rather with meaning has given way to meaning is now how we interact with Truth, "when one considers Dewey, he must face the fact that the absence of a concept of final truth left behind Dewey a trail of ambiguity. In fact, Dewey himself said, "although I have raised large questions, it is not my ambition to answer them" (Breese 161). How can anyone follow such nonsense, such arbitrary nonsense? And yet this very idealism and pragmatism has found its way into the church with a social gospel that sacrifices Truth for social change. Dewey was against the Church if it was all about orthodoxy but was all for it if it was about social responsibility and social action. He was all for "improving society," another form of utopia, and his influence has entered the church as a form of religious humanism; religion needs to be transformed to serve mankind, and we need to be social agents of that change. For the liberal religious humanist, the hope was to improve humanity. But has humanity improved through the centuries?
Since Humanists believe that man is no longer a sinner, for they have nullified old orthodoxies and "dogma," all he needs is education to change his behavior so he can evolve into a more enlightened state of supremacy (godlike state of his own making). Based on all these philosophical ideas and concepts that have arisen since the Age of Enlightenment so as to answer the great questions of life, have we really observed man's behavior changing into more enlightened beings? Juxtapose these humanistic philosophies with what the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9-10, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (KJV). Since the Age of Enlightenment, the mid-19th century, we have witnessed more bloody wars and even a nuclear holocaust which surely is a warning for the future, not the promised utopia that humanist philosophies peddle. Breese so poignantly states this comparison as well; technological advancement without the moral component is a "sure harbinger to come" as these humanistic philosophies have produced "the greatest degree of moral, intellectual, and social ruin an incredulous mankind has ever seen" (218). Epistemological niceties do nothing to address the real problem of man-his innate depraved, degenerate, reprobate, self-his inherent sinful condition, that yes, is a fact or dogma and can not be altered by man's enlightened mind and is never going away no matter how many man-made philosophies come and go that promise hope for the future, a utopia that is not grounded in Truth and reality. How many of these philosophers have prolonged their endeavor to find the solutions to man's problems only to end in a futile quest of the same problems over and over again? Religious liberalism gives the appearance of orthodox christianity but upon further scrutiny, inspection, and analysis, it proves quite the contrary and clearly shows the evidence of a pseudo-Christianity which denies the power of God and the essential core tenants of the Faith. These pluralistic views that are ever so changing have led so many down a meandering road to nowhere filled with illusionary promises only for many to face chagrin and a "funeral march to the grave." Truth, God's Truth, is a constant. It does not change. It is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. It provides all the answers to man's problems and it provides a solution in the blood of Jesus Christ who offers forgiveness of sin through His sacrifice on Calvary. A simple message brimming with hope and a bright future for all eternity that has not changed since the beginning. A simple message that is not convoluted with pluralistic "truths" and pagan relativism.
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death"........Proverbs 14:12 (KJV).
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand forever".......Isaiah 40:8 (KJV).
Quotes and paraphrases taken from the book, Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave, by Dave Breese. Moody Publishers. Chicago, Ill. 1990