Humanism vs. Christianity
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The Polarization of America
by Patrick Vosse
Chapter 11 - The Inevitable Tide
There’s good new and there’s bad news.
Which news is which depends on your side of the Humanism-Christianity conflict. The good
news, if you are a Humanist, is that you will win–and
that is bad new if you are a Christian. The bad new, if
you are a Humanist, is that your victory will only be temporary–and
that is good news if you are a Christian. How do I know? As the Old
Sunday school song proclaims, "The Bible tells me so!" (Now
there is a good reason for Humanists to
read the Bible.) Actually, the Bible is full of prophesies
and several touch on this very theme. But we will continue that
discussion later.
When in Rome . . .
It has been said that history
repeats itself and in the case of Humanism, we can hear
the echoes of the Roman Empire clearly. Many of the
dogmas of Humanism are a repackaging of elements of the Roman Empire and
they are gradually gaining a place in modern Western society. Below are
a few quotes (in italics) taken from the Humanist
Manifesto, Appendix 3. References to Roman
culture are taken mostly from The Twelve Caesars.[1]
Anti-Christian Position
Rome
Rome saw Christianity
as a threat to the Roman lifestyle.
Christianity was suppressed and no public expression of Christ
was allowed, under penalty of prison or death. Since the
Christians would not worship the Emperor and would not
participate in pagan orgies and offerings to pagan gods,
they were seen as a politically disruptive influence, troublemakers.
Humanism
We believe, however, that traditional
dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God,
ritual, or creed above human
needs and experience do a disservice to the
human species. Any account of nature
should pass the tests of scientific evidence; in our
judgment, the dogmas and myths of traditional religions do not do so.
As nontheists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity.
It is interesting to note that 50 percent of Humanist Manifesto 2 is
devoted to opposing religion and promoting Atheism.
Status today
It is not politically correct
to mention Jesus in "polite,
politically correct company". The ACLU has been successful in
removing any mention of God from the classroom
and religious traditions from
the public arena. It has become acceptable to ridicule Christians,
particularly Evangelicals as superstitious,
unreasonable, fanatic, and of a lower mental
awareness.
David Kinnaman, president of the Barna
Institute, and Gabe Lyons of the Fermi Project published a study of
attitudes of 16-29-year-old Americans towards Christianity.
They found that about 38% of all those who did not
regularly attend church had negative impressions of Christianity, and
especially Evangelical Christianity, associating it with conservative
political activism, hypocrisy, anti-homosexuality,
and judgmentalism. About 17% had "very bad" perceptions of Christianity.
In late 2003, there was a dispute in New
York City over whether or not schools may be allowed to
display religious symbols. Jewish
"menorahs" and Islamic "crescents" are permitted, but "nativity scenes,"
that depict the birth of Christ, are not allowed. New York
City lawyers maintained that the Jewish and Islamic symbols have a
"secular" dimension, while the latter is "purely religious."
Harold O.J. Brown of the Howard Center
for the Family, Religion and Society wrote, after several
school shooting that targeted Christian students, that
he saw a "similarity between the way the Roman authorities charged
Christians of that era with odium humani generis
(hatred of the human race) and the way the political and media
establishment charge the Christians with creating a "climate of
hate." David Overstreet, national director of field ministries for the
National Network of Youth Ministries, said Christians have endured
persecution throughout the ages. As evidenced by the
targeting of Christians in the Columbine and Paducah shootings, however,
"there is a heightened potential for prejudice on school campuses," he
said. Mr. Overstreet blamed a collapse of moral standards for producing
what he called "a growing culture of violence." Today, the
Secular-Progressive society is not evolving into a
more enlightened society, it is returning to the culture of Rome.
Morality
Rome
The Roman moral code was
essentially a state-controlled ethical structure in which public conduct
was regulated by laws and private conduct was self-determined. As the
wealth of Rome increased due to the expansion of the Empire,
the society became proportionately more hedonistic and corrupt. The
bloody games produced by emperors and influential officials were
conducted in order to appease an increasingly bored, restless, and
morally corrupt populace. The games were initially similar to modern
boxing matches, but a blood-thirst grew as the population
became more decadent. Eventually, their "maximum
individual autonomy" was expressed in the mass
murder of Christians whose moral dogmas they found so
offensive. When the state determines moral standards, that morality will
eventually corrode and the moral boundaries will yield to political
interests.
Humanism
Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal
damnation are both illusory and harmful.
We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational needing no
theological or ideological sanction.
We believe in maximum individual autonomy consonant with social responsibility. Although science
can account for the causes of behavior, the possibilities
of individual freedom of choice exist in human life
and should be increased.
There
are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that
are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes
eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead
of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in
contradiction to all past historical experience.
Communist Manifesto
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Status today
Situational ethics is increasing as the secular moral code
in Western countries. The principle of anything goes as
long as it does not adversely affect society is being supported by many
court decisions. Pornography, once socially unacceptable
and illegal, is now legal and socially acceptable in the liberal and
more decadent circles. Sexual promiscuity is now
considered a normal function and is commonplace in TV shows and movies.
Pressure is increasing to legalize marijuana and other "social drugs". The objection to religious
dogmas expressed in HM2 is essentially an objection to an absolute
moral standard and moral discipline. A dogma is nothing more
than a teaching. HM2 is full of dogmas. It is Christian dogma that is rejected. Christian dogma says, "Sin is
sin and it is still sin even if society does not want it to be
a sin". In a Humanistic society there is no sin. Today, the
Secular-Progressive society is not evolving into a
more enlightened society, it is returning to the culture of Rome.
Deviant Sexuality
Rome
The maximum individual autonomy
practiced by the Romans was vigorously applied to
sexual practices. The Caesars were overwhelmingly homosexual
or bi-sexual. Houses of prostitution were legal, well
patronized, and catered to all sexual preferences. Pedophilia was
commonplace. However, the maximum individual autonomy went too far and
even the sexually permissive Romans were offended by the increasing
numbers of transvestites, including several senators, who flaunted their
feminine fashions in public. The senate finally passed a law prohibiting
men from wearing silk–
in public that is.
Humanism
In the area of sexuality, we believe
that intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and
puritanical cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct.
The many varieties of sexual
exploration should not in themselves be considered "evil."
Status today
In Provincetown, Mass., the school board
has voted to begin teaching preschoolers about homosexual
lifestyles and to back hiring preferences for "sexual
minorities." Susan Fleming, superintendent of Provincetown schools,
said, "The whole question is making gays and lesbians,
whether through visuals or examples or acknowledging different family
structures, ... visible." This philosophy is rapidly
spreading throughout our school systems nationwide. In some schools, the
children are taught that homosexuality is as normal as heterosexuality
and even encouraged to experiment.
The North American
Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a New York City and San Francisco-based unincorporated organization in the United States that advocates the liberalization of laws against sexual relations between adult and minor males--resolving to end the oppression of men and boys who have freely chosen mutually consenting relationships". The American Civil Liberties Union is a major player in the effort to allow pedophiles to practice their pleasure.
The liberal judge activists got the message.
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In 2006, a court in Brisbane, Australia, dropped all charges against a
man arrested for sexually abusing a 5-year old girl. The reason? The judge was concerned about "adverse publicity".
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In May, 2009, the New Jersey State Supreme Court ruled that municipalities cannot prohibit
convicted sex offenders from living in designated areas (near
school, playgrounds, bus stops, etc.).
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In 2006, the Hague District Court of the Netherlands ruled that the
PNVD political party, known as the "Pedophile Party" was legal and
could maintain its website that promotes lowering the legal age of
consent from 16 to 12 years of age.
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In 2008, the Merced Sun-Star, CA, reported that a pedophile that
molested a 10-year old boy was released from jail after serving only
a few months. Two weeks after his release he was arrested again for
petty theft and using drugs. The latter crime got him a sentence of 6 years.
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On 25 June 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana could not impose the
death penalty on a convicted child rapist. In a 5-4 decision
written by Justice Kennedy, the Court found that there is a
"national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of
child rape".
In 2008, the California Supreme Court
ruled that same-sex marriages could not be prohibited.
A referendum legally reasserted one-man one-woman marriage. On May 17,
2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex
marriage. On April 7, 2009,
the state legislature overrode Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry,
making Vermont the first state to allow gay marriage
through legislative action. In 2000, Vermont became the first U.S.
state to offer same-sex civil unions. Other states that
allow same-sex marriage are: New Hampshire, Iowa, New Jersey, Oregon,
Washington and the list grows longer each year. Other nations that allow
same-sex marriage are: Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, South
Africa, Spain, and Sweden. In all cases, the number is increasing.
Nations that allow same-sex unions
or partnerships are: Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zeeland,
Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and Great Britton. It should be noted
that much of the same-sex marriage legalization has come through liberal
courts and, in many cases, referendums defeat the
practice. It would appear the liberal courts are out of touch with
society on this matter.
And, of course, there is pornography.
Fifty years ago the liberal courts ruled
that pornography was "art". Now pornographic sites on the internet are
the most popular–by a wide margin.
Human Life
Rome
Romans practiced infanticide, suicide,
and abortion. Suicide was usually practiced
by those who were disgraced and wanted an "honorable" death. By the 2nd
century, the Roman games consisted of gladiator fights to the death and
the killing of Christians in various "entertaining"
ways.
Humanism
It also includes a recognition of an
individual's right to die with dignity, euthanasia,
and the right to suicide.
The right to birth control, abortion,
and divorce should
be recognized.
Status today
Abortion is now legal everywhere.
Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, and physician assisted
suicide is legal in Switzerland and in the U.S. the state
of Oregon. It is a path of small steps from killing someone or assisting
suicide because they are dieing and are in pain to killing someone
because they are infirm and no longer want to live. Then advance to
killing someone because they are born with congenital abnormalities and
they may have a difficult life (already justification for
abortion), to killing someone because they are mentally
or socially "unfit" as is proposed by the eugenics
contingent (see Chapter 13).
New World Order
Rome
The Roman Empire was a
marvel of organization and unity. It controlled, what was for the Roman
citizen, the known world. Roman religion was imposed on
the conquered nations and Roman law was enforced by the Roman army. The
conquered nations were taxed and their tribute made the Roman citizen
wealthy. The conquered contributed more than money; they provided the
slaves necessary to maintain an advantageous economy. The Roman Empire
was ahead of its time technologically, their infrastructure allowed the
large expanse of the Empire to be controlled and the Pax Romana
enforced. Modern historians, artists, architects, engineers,
politicians, poets and, of course, Humanists praise the
Roman "World Order." But ask those who were subject to it. If a "world
government" is such an ideal means of developing society, why was the
Roman army larger after expansion was complete than when they were
actively in battles and taking new lands? In spite of the magnificent
organization and international communication system,
corruption was endemic and rebellion was just around the corner. It was
an excellent example of the saying, "Power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely."
Humanism
We deplore the division of humankind
on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in
human history where the best option is to transcend the limits of
national sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world
community.
Thus we look to the development of a
system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal
government.
The problems of economic growth and
development can no longer be resolved by one nation alone; they are
worldwide in scope.
We must expand communication
and transportation across frontiers. Travel
restrictions must cease.
Status today
The economic disaster of 2008 made the
point. The world is united economically. With economic unification comes
increasing political unification. Even before the economic collapse,
there was a tendency for unification: United Nations,
World Bank, APEC, ASEAN, NAFTA, and the European Union. In some of the
regional groups, open borders are available to member nations. Rapid
international transportation and the Internet allow global commerce and
trade to grow at an astonishing rate. Out of the global economic crisis,
there have emerged several concepts that indicate an even
more unified world is developing. Global regulation of equity and
financial transactions is assured. Even a global currency has been
proposed. National identities are crumbling and centralization is
increasing.
The Communists are further reproached
with desiring to abolish countries and nationality. The working men
have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got.
Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy,
must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute
itself the nation, it is so far, itself national, though
not in the bourgeois sense of the word.
Communist Manifesto
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Nations and national associations are
becoming increasingly
socialistic as national identities are diminishing. The social engineers
are pressing agendas that promote state control at the expense of
individual freedom. Today, the European Union is almost as socialistic
as "state capitalist" China. This, of course is necessary for the puppet
masters to have the strong strings that manipulate society.
Unification has one major disadvantage
for the citizen; the farther government is from the people, the less
accountability it has to the individual. The citizen of a small town can
usually walk into the office of a town official and make a request or
file a complaint, usually over a cup of coffee, and expect results. Try
that at in a big city, state office or, God forbid, a federal
office. Now imagine a world government. The less direct accountability a
government has to the people, the higher the probability
of a dictatorship. Democracy does not work without
accountability and a unified world cannot be a democracy because the
logistics of accountability will not allow it. However, there cannot be
a world government as long as there are national superpowers based on
free enterprise and individual freedom. Lurking in our future is an
effort by Humanist to undermine the sovereignty of our
nation and its economic strength. Only in that way can the impediment to
world government be neutralized.
As Humanism is being
advanced in our society, it is often labeled Progressivism.
Today, most liberal politicians refer to themselves as
Progressive. It is more acceptable than Socialist or Marxist,
however, a rose by any other name is still….. We discuss
this in detail in Chapter 13. However, as revealed above, the fruit of
the "Humanism tree" is nothing new. In fact Humanism is a regression to
the lifestyle of the Romans – just before they slipped
into degeneration and the Empire fell.
Closing the Parenthesis
From the few examples above, one could
speculate that we are not progressing in social, moral, political, and
human values but are regressing back to the decadent times of the Roman
Empire. I guess it is true what they say: history
repeats itself. With regard to the struggle between Christianity
and the secular world, this is particularly true.
When the Church began, it
existed in an environment of anti-Christian
paganism, anti-Christian secular powers,
and anti-Christian philosophies. The Church grew in
numbers and, by the 4th century, the persecution
was eliminated and for several centuries the Church
existed in a favorable environment; able to evangelize
without restriction until a third of the world had become Christian.
Now we see a gradual return to the times of the early Church.
This book is concerned with the impact of
Evolutionism, Secular Humanism, and
the Secular-Progressive movements on
Christianity and how Christians
react to these challenges. However, a greater threat to Christianity is
growing in scope and influence as well–
Gnosticism. We
will discuss this threat in further in Chapter 12. Gnosticism was the
most important threat to the early Church and it is still
alive and well today. This is graphically represented in Figure 4.
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Figure 4. Graphical representation of the Christian church as described
by biblical prophesy.
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The opposition to the Church
as shown in the "Early Church to the 4th
century" box is well documented in history as is the period of Christian
evangelizing.
And the gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and the end
will come. Matt 24:14
When the evangelizing of the world is
complete, the end will come–
the parenthesis will be closed and the
persecution will resume. The "good" times when
Christianity is afforded privilege and respect, even
from non-Christians is over. The parenthesis is closing
and we are coming in to the final period of this amazing epoch. What
will the last days be like? Here are a few examples
taken from the Bible.
But mark this, there will be terrible
times in the last days. People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to
their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God – having the form of godliness, but denying its
power. 2 Tim 3:1-5
Paul continues to show how man
tends to worship the created rather than the Creator, and
the results are not so good:
Therefore God gave
them over in sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the
degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the
Creator – who is forever praised. Amen Rom 1:24
Peter continues the description of end-time conditions:
First of all, you must understand that
in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and
following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this coming
he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has
since the beginning of creation." 2Pet 3:3, 4
And from Jude:
But dear friends, remember what the apostles of the Lord Jesus
Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last
times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." Jude 17
But the opposition to Christians increases:
Then you will be handed over to be
persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations
because of me. Matt 24:9
They will put you out of the
synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will
think he is offering a service to God. John 16:2
He was given power to make war against
the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every
tribe, people, language and nation. Rev 13:7
The evidence is clear, from both current
events and the predictions in the Bible; Christianity will come under increasing rejection by society and with
it the Creationists’ positions. Humanism plays an
important role in the opposition to Christianity, in fact, the primary
opponent as discussed in Chapter 13.
Poles Apart
A survey conducted by the American
Religious Identification Survey and reported in USA Today in 2008,
showed that, since 1990, there is an 11 percent increase in those who
claim to have no religion. And many of those who do claim
to have some Christian affiliation are not committed,
practicing Christians.
A survey conducted by the Pew
Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that within the
Christian community, the Evangelicals
have become the majority and those churches that have compromised
philosophically or socially to adapt to the Humanistic positions are the
ones that have declined in membership. There is no question that a
polarization is occurring throughout the world.
Secularism is increasing and within the Church,
the "Political", "Philosophical", and "Social" (politically
correct) churches are declining and distancing
themselves from the Evangelicals.
Increasingly, those who are seeking a
spiritual life tend to build their own religion, picking and choosing whatever piece of theology seems
to fit their particular preference–
and this includes many Christians. At the same time, those who claim to be evangelical, born
again, charismatic, or Pentecostal are increasingly
committed and active in their Christian community.
And all the nations will be gathered
before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. Matt 25:32
The time is rapidly approaching when
"fence-sitters" will have to make a commitment one way or the other. I
mentioned at the beginning of the chapter that there was good news and
bad news. So far, at least from the perspective of the Christian,
we have only discussed the bad new. For the good news,
reference is made to Revelation, Chapters 19 through 21
and 1 Jn 5:4, 5. We will continue this discussion in chapters 16 and 17.
[1] The Twelve Caesars
(Penguin Classics, ISBN 0-140-44921-3) by Suetinus a Roman
historian, who probably wrote the book during the first part of
the 2nd century. It is one of the most accurate and
detailed accounts of Roman life during the period of the early Christian
Church.
Copyright © 2011 by Patrick Vosse
All Rights Reserved
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