Ask the Pastor 121

What is Secular Humanism?

According to the Human Manifesto III “Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.” The reason why this is from the third manifesto is because this philosophy is not based upon absolutes but is ever evolving and relative to the time and place where it finds itself. It is “without supernaturalism” because it is without God i.e., atheistic. In fact, humanism is based upon the evolution of man to the point where man is his own god. Truth and reality are defined by an ever-changing man/woman in an ever-changing environment socially, as well as biologically. Therefore, when a humanist uses words and phrases such as ethical, personal fulfillment and greater good, they do not mean anything because they mean different things to different people, there is no absolute definition. The individual determines what is right and wrong or good and bad, based upon one’s own feelings and disposition at that moment. In education a class in ethics could be taught completely different from one teacher to another and from one year to another. In politics and government, laws could be interpreted to mean two different things from one person to another and from one time to another. As a majority of Americans become humanists, we are going to see an increase in this kind of relativism as soon every man will do what is right in his own eyes. The idea that people are always going to do what is best for the greater good is an absurdity, because people are by nature, egocentric and will do what is best for themselves. The best kind of society is one that follows the absolutes of the Bible as the Word of God, which proclaims absolute truth which is good for all people at all times in every culture.

Have questions about the Bible? Send them to Dr. Greg Koehn at gak4850@gmail.com and read the answer here in this article.