Is Secular Humanism a Faith-based Religion?

The process of spiritual maturity is replacing lies with truth.

When I was young and still involved in a church, secular humanists were the big, bad, boogie man who we suspected would somehow corrupt us. Sometime later, I decided to find out for myself what secular humanist actually believe. What I discovered was that what I had been taught about secular humanists was mostly lies. I’ve covered that in an earlier blog. I decided to revisit this topic, and this time, we’ll see if what christians teach about secular humanists is actually true.

While researching what secular humanists believe, the Google gods directed me to a christian website called Abounding Joy (AJ). The article was entitled Preaching the Faith of Secular Humanism.  Sometimes what AJ says about secular humanists is accurate, like when he says that they do not believe in supernatural gods. Sometimes his evaluations of secular humanists are based on misconceptions, and he often misrepresents what they believe. But there are also times (as we will see in future blogs) when something he says about secular humanists is an outright lie.  To be fair, we will acknowledge when he is accurate, but we will also attempt to replace his misrepresents and lies with a more accurate view of secular humanists.

But first, I must say that I fully understand Abounding Joy’s distrust of what he can’t understand. I know I was distrustful back then; we were taught from the pulpit to distrust anyone who wasn’t a part of us. My guess is that AJ has never personally met or had a conversation with someone who calls themselves a secular humanist.

Also, I am completely aware that nothing I say in this blog will change AJ’s deep seeded distrust of secular humanists. His mind is made up and he will never change. To do so would be considered treason to his tribe. The price for that could be quite high, including being shunned by his congregation. This blog is not written for him. Neither is this blog written for secular humanists. They already know what they believe.

This Blogs for You

If you are still active in christian circles, but you’re not satisfied with all the answers you are getting to your questions, then this blog might be for you. Don’t be afraid to keep reading. Secular humanists aren’t really all that scary and neither am I.

So, let’s see if Abounding Joy is accurately representing what secular humanists believe. For the record, just about every paragraph of AJ’s blog contains some level of false statements; therefore, I’ve decided to address them one at a time for the sake of clarity.

The Preaching the Faith of Secular Humanism

AJ: Humanism is a faith-based system (i.e., a religion) whose adherents believe, among other things, that the material world is all that exists. Secular humanists believe that the highest being that exists is mankind. They do not believe in a supernatural God.

Much of this paragraph is an accurate representation of what secular humanistic beliefs. However, the glaring falsehood can be found in the first eight words.

AJ: Humanism is a faith-based system (i.e., a religion) …

This is simply not true. There is nothing about secular humanism that needs to be based on faith. Faith is the realm of religions. Humanism is not a religion. A belief system maybe, but not one that requires faith and certainly not a religion. We will show later in this blog, that secular humanism is not a faith-based system, while christianity is nearly entirely faith-based.

AJ “…whose adherents believe, among other things, that the material world is all that exists.”

What he says here is accurate. Secularists believe that the material world is all that we have certain knowledge of. Here is a quote from The Humanist Society of Western New York.

“Humanists believe that this is the only life of which we have certain knowledge and that we owe it to ourselves and others to make it the best life possible for ourselves and all with whom we share this fragile planet.”

No faith is required to hold this belief.

AJ: Secular humanists believe that the highest being that exists is mankind.

Obviously, for AJ his god is the highest being (based entirely on faith) and he cannot fathom the idea that anyone would not embrace his faith-based believe in God. Not being a religion, secularism would not accept such a faith-based belief.

AJ: They do not believe in a supernatural God.

I understand that just by saying this AJ and his audience are already appalled. Their bible says that the “fool in his heart says there is not God” therefore AJ mistakenly comes to the debate with a predetermined idea of how lowly secular humanists are.

To say that secular humanists do not believe in a supernatural God, is just partially accurate. It would be more correct to say that Secularists do not believe in supernatural gods (plural). In the history of civilization, mankind has created over 8,000 gods. Christians would dismiss the existence of 7,999 of those gods. A Secularism would agree with theists on that point but then would take it one step or one god further. Secularists would say that they simply believe in one less god than monotheists do.

Let’s compare

Let’s compare secular humanistic beliefs with christian beliefs and see which one is actually based on faith. For this comparison, I have chosen the mission statement from a christian college, and statements from a secular humanism website explaining their values. I will leave it up to the reader to decide which is more faith based. If you are an evangelical, you will obviously come to a different conclusion than I did. This might be an indication that you really need to reevaluate your religion.

Veritas International University offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The following comes from their Doctrinal Statement. (Remember, they are an institution of “higher education”.  After reading their doctrinal statement, it might be fair to ask what a degree from Veritas will actually prepare its graduates for after college.)

Veritas International University

Are these statements verifiable, or must they be taken by faith alone?

• We believe the Bible is the Word of God, comprising the totality of Holy Scripture, is verbally inerrant in the original text, and remains inerrant, inspired, and infallible.
• We believe in the full historicity of the biblical record of primeval history, including the literal existence of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all people.
• We believe God is the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth.
• We believe the creation account as described in the book of Genesis is factual and historical.
• We believe God created the heavens and the earth in six historic days as described in the book of Genesis.
• We believe in a literal, worldwide flood that destroyed the earth, animal life, and the human race, except for Noah and those he took in the ark with him.
• We believe in the origin of the nations and languages at the tower of Babel.
• We believe that the triune God eternally exists in one essence and three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; that He is essentially Spirit (i.e., essentially one without parts).
•  We believe that God is personal, transcendent, sovereign, life, love, truth, almighty, simple, timelessly eternal, unchangeable, wise, just, holy, relational, pure actuality, dynamic, infallible in all things.
• We believe that God has foreknowledge of all future decisions and events.
• We believe that Jesus Christ was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless and miraculous life, provided for the atonement of our sins.
• We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead who guides the believer into all truth.
• We believe that man is created in the image of God; however, after the fall of Adam and Eve, all people are by nature separated from God.
• We believe that when a person receives Jesus Christ that person is immediately born again and becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with Christ in heaven. Those who do not personally receive Jesus Christ by faith will spend eternity separated from God in a state of conscious torment.
• We believe the universal church is an organic body composed of all believers, both living and dead.
• We believe in the imminent rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ which will be physical, personal, and visible.
• We believe there is a real personal devil of great malevolence. We believe his power is limited by God to only what God permits him to do. We believe the Devil will eventually burn in the lake of fire and brimstone.

Secular humanism

“Humanism is a joyous alternative that does not need to rely on faith for its beliefs.”

• We believe there is no evidence a supernatural power ever needed or wanted anything from people, ever communicated to them, or ever interfered with the laws of nature to assist or harm anyone.
• We do not accept supernatural views of reality.
• We affirm our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good.
• We believe humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion.
• We believe in the dignity of each human being.
• We believe in participatory democracy and the expansion of the open society and standing for human rights and social justice.
• We believe that the goals of life originate from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny.
• We believe that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives.
• We believe humanism stands for the building of a more humane society through human capabilities.
• We believe humanism is a joyous alternative to religions that believe in a supernatural god and life in a hereafter.
• We believe that this is the only life of which we have certain knowledge and that we owe it to ourselves and others to make it the best life possible for ourselves and all with whom we share this fragile planet.
• We believe that when people are free to think for themselves, using reason and knowledge as their tools, they are best able to solve this world’s problems.
• We believe humans should take responsibility for their own lives.
• We believe in a world view based on the conviction that the universe or nature is all that exists or is real.
• We do not believe in deities, transcendental entities, miracles, life after death, and the supernatural.
• We believe the universe to be the result of an extremely long and complex evolution under immutable laws of nature. Humanists view this natural world as wondrous and precious, and as offering limitless opportunities.
• We believe that science cannot now and probably never will be able to explain the ultimate origin or destiny of the universe, and the lack of definite answers to these ultimate questions leaves room for reasonable people to hypothesize about the origin of the natural universe.
• We believe humans have the freedom to give meaning, value, and purpose to their lives by their own independent thought, free inquiry, and responsible, creative activity.
• We value the welfare of humankind — rather than the welfare of a supposed God or gods — to be of paramount importance.

This about sums it up:

“Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth” Colossians 3:2

Due to the lack of any evidence for an afterlife, this life should be lived as though it’s the only one we have.

Coming next:

We will continue with Abounding Joy’s misconceptions about secular humanism.

 

 

From Where I Stand

Dale Crum