“Absolute truth belongs only to one class of humans—the class of absolute fools.”

Ashley montagu

The enemy of Humanism is Christian Faith

Corliss Lamont

In preparation for a weekend course on Humanism and Christian Socialism. I ran across these statements and found other interesting comments in the Humanist Manifesto written in 1973.  This was a document signed by some of the most brilliant minds of that time that stated in clear dogmatic terms what Humanists believe. For instance:

The Humanist Manifesto II makes it clear: “As non-theists, we begin with humans, not God, nature, not deity…. [H]umans 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.

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.

I guess I am an absolute fool because I believe in what Hebrews 11: 3 says:

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. NIV

Creation,Virgin Birth, the Divinity of Christ, Trinity, The Atonement, etc. are all foundations of Christian faith and believed as truth, or simply stated; it is absolute.  It isn't fundamentalism, but it is fundamental.

Humanism is based on the assumption that Scientific reasoning is superior to Christian faith, and that absolutes cannot be relative to situational ethics. Another quote from my study:

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.

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.

Perhaps I am blinded by my Christian Dogmatism, but I believe in what the Apostles Creed states about creation, virgin birth, the divinity of Christ of Christ, Atonement, etc.

Humanism vs Christianity is not a cultural clash but a worldview conflict that is shaping western society as we live it.  It seems to me that Christianity has been here before in it's fight against the paganism of the first three centuries after Christ.  I see this as the same thing just in a different package.