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“Secular Humanism”​—New Religion or Old Philosophy?

Protestant preachers accuse ‘secular humanism’ of conspiring against belief in God and moral values. Self-proclaimed ‘humanists’ say they are victims of a witch-hunt. Just what is humanism, and how should a Christian respond to it?

“SECULAR humanism has become the religion of America,” says television evangelist Jerry Falwell. “We must remove all humanists from public office and replace them with pro-moral political leaders” warns preacher Tim LaHaye, who has written a book about ‘the humanist threat.’

Such statements have recently attracted attention and generated alarm in the American press. “The fundamentalist New Right has shifted its . . . tactics to confront a new bogyman,” comments Newsweek magazine. “The target is what Christian fundamentalists label ‘humanism’​—and their campaign against anyone they regard as a humanist threatens to become as virulent as the anti-communist crusade of the 1950s.”

Just what is “secular humanism”? According to Time magazine: “It has grown into a New Rightist code word for the precepts and practices of almost anyone this side of Communism who disagrees with them.”

Actually, there are almost as many definitions of “humanism” as there are “humanists”​—or “antihumanists.” Traditionally, humanism is associated with the Renaissance. At that time Europe, and especially Italy, was being flooded by ancient manuscripts from Byzantium, which was under siege by the Turks. This resulted in a wave of enthusiasm for ancient Greek and Roman culture by people who were tired of dreary medieval scholasticism. After a thousand years of studying God under the oppressive hand of the Catholic Church, Renaissance Europeans were thrilled to imitate the ancients and glorify man for a change.

“The free thought and conduct of Periclean Greeks or Augustan Romans filled many humanists with an envy that shattered in their hearts the Christian code of humility, otherworldliness, continence,” observes historian Will Durant, “and they wondered why they should subject body, mind, and soul to the rule of ecclesiastics who themselves were now joyously converted to the world.”

But the Renaissance humanists threw out the Christian baby with the religionist bathwater. “By and large,” as Durant notes, they “acted as if Christianity were a myth . . . not to be taken seriously by emancipated minds.”

In the following centuries the study of the ancient classics became almost a new religion for European humanists. But the more the ancients were studied, the more it had to be admitted that their ideas were often mistaken, and even the greatest classics were far from perfect. By the 19th century “the classical civilizations . . . had to be transferred from an ideal realm to one of historical relativity,” as the Encyclopædia Britannica notes. What could the humanists believe in now?

The answer, at least for some humanists, came in 1933 with the publication in the United States of a document called the Humanist Manifesto. “It was substantially a profession of anthropological atheism based on the theory of evolution,” according to scholar Cornelio Fabro. This was followed in 1973 by Humanist Manifesto II, which denounced religion in favor of the scientific method. Science had become the new god for these humanists. Among those signing Humanist Manifesto II were several clergymen.

So it is easy to understand why conservative preachers of Christendom are upset with humanism. Of course, documents such as the Humanist Manifestos do not reflect the beliefs of all humanists, and this very confusion among humanists about their identity indicates trouble. “The unity and identity of humanistic scholarship are now finally shattered,” admits Professor of Philosophy Georges Paul Gusdorf.

Humanists are fond of quoting ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras, who said that “man is the measure of all things.” By this he meant that absolute truth cannot be found. Such thinking cannot coexist with true Christianity, for Christians are convinced that they have indeed found the truth, and that it has set them free. (John 8:32) Christians appreciate that Jehovah God and his Son, Jesus Christ, are the “measure of all things.”​—Ephesians 5:1; 1 Peter 2:21.

It is appropriate, then, for Christians to speak out against humanism, whether in its atheistic or in its “classical” guise. A true Christian could not accept the tenets of humanism without compromising his own integrity to God.

But does the Bible authorize Christians to confront humanism on a political battlefield, as the so-called religious right seeks to do? No! When battling false ideas in the first century, did the Apostle Paul turn to politics? Not at all. “The weapons of our [spiritual] warfare are not fleshly,” he said. “For we are overturning reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”​—2 Corinthians 10:4, 5.

The various forms of humanism popular today are certainly ‘lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God,’ but true Christians do not battle humanism with ‘fleshly weapons’ such as political warfare. How can they, when Jesus made it clear that his followers are “no part of the world”? (John 15:19) Instead, true Christians are happy to carry on spiritual warfare against humanism and all the other “isms” of our confused times. How? By going directly to people all over the earth with God’s Word, the only real source of truth, and the reliable “measure of all things.”​—2 Timothy 3:16, 17.

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True Christians conduct spiritual warfare against humanism, but they don’t confront it on a political battlefield

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Humanist Manifesto​—‘atheism based on the theory of evolution’