Secular Humanism

Every system of thought, every worldview has a concept of God.   This even applies to the atheist because whatever a philosophy or religion chooses as its foundation is its God.   Our entire western civilization was built on Christian principles.   Today there are many views of God and many views of the world.   The majority of the worldviews can be summed up into two major worldviews: a Catholic worldview and a secular humanist worldview.

Most people in America consider themselves to be Christians.   But, the Catholic worldview is declining and is under attack from what most call secular humanism.   We must be very careful to define what we mean by humanism.   By humanism we are not talking about humanitarianism.   Humanitarianism means being kind to people.   Secular humanists are atheists. To many this is a hard statement but let us look at what they believe.   They reject any concept of a Creator in favour of evolution.   They believe that in the universe there is nothing above and beyond the universe. Therefore man, as the highest form of evolution, is responsible to: create his own law and morality and to save himself. Man is the secular humanists' god.  
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND HUMANISM
Let us now turn to a consideration of those elements of the Christian world-view that are shared in varying ways by all major forms of modem humanism, but here confining our attention to the Christian humanism in the Renaissance and the type of modern humanism represented by Irving Babbitt. What are the principal similarities between Christianity and this tradition of modern humanism deriving primarily from the so-called Christian humanism of the Renaissance.

2. Christianity and Humanism

Delivered at The University of Iowa in 1937

The world of scientific thought and speculation presents today a remarkable spectacle. After four hundred years of vaunted promising to bring in the kingdom of man through the knowledge that is power, we now find that... [continues]

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