Secular Humanism

Secular Humanism Marxism - Leninism Cosmic Humanism Biblical Christianity Source Humanist Manifesto I & II Writings of Marx & Lenin Writings of Ferguson, Spangler, etc. Bible Theology Atheism Atheism Pantheism Theism Philosophy Naturalism Dialectical Materialsim Non-Naturalism Supernaturalism Ethics Ethical Relativism Proletariat Morality Ethical Relativism Ethical Absolutes Biology Darwinian Evolution Darwinian/ Punctuated Evolution Darwinian/ Punctuated Evolution Creation

Secular Humanism Marxism - Leninism Cosmic Humanism Biblical Christianity Psychology Monistic Self-Actualization Monistic Pavlovian Behaviorism Collective Consciousness Dualism Sociology Non-traditional, World State, Ethical Society Abolition of Home, Church, & State Non-traditional Home, Church, & State Home, State, & Church Law Positive Law Positive, or Proletariat Law Self-Law Biblical/Natural Law Politics World Government (Globalism) New World Order (Globalism) New Age Order Justice, Freedom, Order

Secular Humanism Marxism - Leninism Cosmic Humanism Biblical Christianity Economics Socialism Socialism/ Communism Universal Enlightened Production Stewardship of Property History Historical Evolution Historical Materialism Evolutionary Godhood Historical Resurrection

Secular Humanism Ethics: Ethical Relativism Since the Humanist rejects the existence of God, human beings get to decide on standards and values. Humanists believe that science, reason, and historical experience are sufficient guides for figuring out what is right or wrong in any situation. These standards will not always be the same, as each person has a different background and reasoning. Therefore, the standards and values – ethics – are relative. The Humanist Manifesto II states, "We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing not theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest."

Marxism-Leninism Ethics: Proletariat Morality Marxist ethics don't come from a sense of absolute rules, but from the cause of communism. Whatever advances the proletariat (the working class) is morally good. Whatever advances the cause of communism is morally good, whatever hinders its advance in social and human evolution is morally evil. The killing fields of Cambodia, the Soviet Union and the Ukraine, as well as the mass murders in China were the practical results of proletariat, or class morality.

Cosmic Humanism Ethics: Ethical Relativism Since each individual is divine, they need only get in touch with the universal god-consciousness within to act morally. According to this standard, virtually every mindset and action is justified – with the notable exception of adhering to a worldview, which believes in moral absolutes (such a view supposedly stunts a person's ethical progress).

Biblical Christianity Ethics: Ethical Absolutes • God's moral nature is absolute and unchanging. God always hates evil and loves good. The Bible is of supreme importance because it tells us the difference between the two, providing a framework on which a completely unambiguous ethics must be built. According to Biblical Christianity, ethical relativism leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Christian ethics is inseparable from theology for the simple reason that Christian ethics is grounded in the character of God. Rather than believing in some ethical scheme bound to society's ever-changing whims, the Christian answers to a specific moral order revealed to man through both general revelation and the special revelation of the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ. • Jesus Christ is the "Light" • Genesis 2:9; John 1:9; John 3:19,20

Genesis 2:9 - And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. • John 1:9 - The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. • John 3:19,20 - This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Outside the home's front door lay a bare, blood-soaked mattress and box spring. Josh Booth looks at the living room containing the mattress, right, where his brother was killed. The house inside was infested with fleas, the plumbing was backed up, much of the furniture was broken and the stench of cat urine filled the air. Matthew Booth, 34, was lying face-up on the mattress when he was shot in the head early July 30. His 13-year-old daughter told investigators she used a 12-gauge shotgun to shoot him in the face, a crime that her attorney said was precipitated by years of sexual abuse. The Associated Press on Sunday toured the Elizabeth Township home, located about 20 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and found revolting conditions. "I've been in crack houses that have been nicer," said Eddie Rose, a private investigator hired by the girl's attorney, Patrick Nightingale. Prosecutors initially charged the girl as an adult with criminal homicide. But after visiting the filthy home Friday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. decried the deplorable conditions and said the girl would be tried as a juvenile. The girl was sent to a psychiatric clinic Friday and, on Monday, officials there determined she should remain for up to another 20 days. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday to get a judge to approve transferring the case to juvenile court. The Associated Press does not identify possible victims of sexual abuse. Matthew Booth was cremated in a private ceremony, his brother Josh Booth told the AP after visiting the house Sunday.

The 13-year-old girl's mother, Michelle Fazek, does not have custody of the teen or her 14-year-old brother, but does have custody of a 12-year-old daughter she had with Matthew Booth. Fazek and Booth were never married. Nightingale told a judge last week that his client "specifically requested her mother not be involved at this point. There are serious issues of alienation." The brother said he was on the second floor at the time his father was shot and came running downstairs when he heard it. The girl tossed about some furniture after her father's slaying to make it look like a burglary took place, Nightingale said. But, he said, she lived in the squalor, among the fleas and animal feces. There was barely enough room to walk through the living room. A beat-up couch, where the girl slept, stood propped up against one corner, its back ripped and its cushions scattered on the floor. An empty alcohol bottle, beer cans, soda cans, books, a stuffed animal, papers and crumpled-up pages from pornographic magazines cluttered the floor. A coffee maker and another small appliance sat on the kitchen floor amid dirt, debris and animal feces. A green cat litter box lay on its side. Authorities said animal welfare officers took away an array of animals -- including dogs, cats and rabbits -- from the house last week. Several trash-filled plastic grocery bags leaned against the fridge, while larger trash bags brimming with empty beer cans took up space under the kitchen sink. The only items in the freezer were a bottle of vodka, a plastic bag and a small red container.

In one room upstairs was another bare mattress and box spring. Stuffed animals, plastic toys, clothing, and soda cans and bottles were strewn across the floor, along with animal feces. Several drawings took up one wall. On a piece of paper stuck to the wall was D.H. Lawrence's poem, "Self Pity," which begins, "I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself." Written in marker on the wall was "To live is to suffer" and a line from a Tupac Shakur song, "My only fear of death is reincarnation." A second room upstairs was so cluttered that walking more than a yard inside was impossible. A kitchen sink, a vacuum cleaner, an artificial Christmas tree, broken furniture, boxes and other items filled the floor. After going through the house with an AP reporter and photographer, Rose and Al Hanasik, who works with Rose, spent several minutes furiously smacking the fleas off their clothing. Josh Booth said he hadn't seen his brother in about six years. But he and his wife saw the girl and her brother when the children visited their grandparents. "They would say they were fine," Kim Booth said. "They never gave any inclination something was going on." The couple said they were unaware of any sexual abuse. "If the family was aware anything like this was going on, we would have done something," Kim Booth said. "This terrible tragedy happened because nobody did anything."

Secular Humanism Biology: Darwinian Evolution Naturalistic evolution says that life just happened. It just appeared from a primordial ooze and through natural selection (from beneficial mutations) changed into animals, plants and man. Without naturalistic evolution, there is no Secular Humanism. Anything else would demand a Creator, which would mean that man is not the source of all things. Humanists believe that science has proven the theory of evolution to the extent that it is no longer a theory but a scientific fact. According to this "fact," man is the most highly evolved of all creatures, and is now responsible for directing and aiding the evolutionary process.

Marxism-Leninism Biology: Darwinian/Punctuated Evolution Marxism-Leninism also depends on the theories of evolution and spontaneous generation. Karl Marx made it very clear that the origin of the species contained the scientific basis for his views on the class struggle. However, Marxist dialectical materialism called for something more than just the gradual progress of natural selection. The dialectic needs a theory with clashes and leaps. This is satisfied with punctuated equilibrium, which says that each species stayed the same for long periods of time (equilibrium) and evolution happened through occasional ruptures or leaps (punctuations) from one species to another.

Cosmic Humanism Biology: Darwinian/Punctuated Evolution The New Age movement sees mankind as evolving from disharmony to harmony, until evolution has guided men and women out of the material into becoming completely spiritual beings. Evolution is central to Cosmic Humanist doctrine, because it ensures mankind's eventual progression to godhood.

Biblical Christianity Biology: Creation • Only the creationist perspective can adequately account for design in nature, since it postulates a Designer, a law-giver and an orderly cause, while the materialist can only posit chance. Christians believe the creationist model as described in scripture better fits the facts of science than the evolutionary model. Christianity trusts the authority of Genesis and declarations concerning creation, such as Mark 10:6 and Colossians 1:16. Science and Christianity are demonstrated to be compatible and to declare in unison that God "created all things" (Ephesians 3:9). The Bible gives us information about God and His universe; science gives us information about God's universe. • Jesus Christ is the "Life." • Genesis 1:17; John 1:4; John 11:25; Colossians 1:16

Mark 10:6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' Col 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

Biblical References: • Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness … • Psalm 139:13,16 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. … your eyes saw my unformed body. • Deut 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. • James 2:6 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Current Bioethics Issues: • Abortion • Reproductive technology • Euthanasia • Stem cells • Cloning

Key Question • Who and what are we? • From a strictly scientific point of view, there is no doubt that individual human life begins at conception and does not end until natural death. At the moment of conception, when sperm and ovum cease to exist as individual entities, a new being with its own genetic code comes into existence. All that is needed for its development is food, water, air, and an environment conducive to its survival.

If human persons ought not to be either subjects of research or killed without justification, and if the fetus from conception is a human person, then embryo experimentation, abortion, and cloning are prima facie morally wrong. • Human beings and human persons? • Many bioethical decisions were made without addressing this issue.

When does an unborn become a human person? • Brain waves are detected (40 to 43 days) • A being who can engage in cognitive acts such as sophisticated communication, consciousness, solving complex problems, self-motivated activity and having a self-concept (sometimes after birth). • The fetus is sentient, the ability to feel and sense as a conscious being (middle to end of 2nd trimester). Needing certain functions to qualify as human person: • What about a human being is asleep, unconscious, and temporarily comatose

Arguments for ‘no morally significant difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today.’ (SLED) • Size: True, embryos are smaller than newborns and adults, but why is that relevant? Do we really want to say that large people are more valuable than small ones? Men are generally larger than women, but that doesn’t mean they deserve more rights. Size doesn’t equal value. • Level of development: True, embryos and fetuses are less developed than you and I. But again, why is this relevant? Four year-old children are less developed than 14 year-old ones. Should older children have more right to life than their younger siblings?

Arguments for ‘no morally significant difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today.’ (SLED) • Environment: Where you are has no bearing on who you are. Does your value change when you cross the street or roll over in bed? If not, how can a journey of eight inches down the birth-canal suddenly change the essential nature of the unborn from non-human to human? If the unborn are not already valuable human beings, merely changing their location can’t make them so. • Degree of Dependency: If viability bestows human value, then all those who depend on insulin or kidney medication are not valuable and we may kill them. Conjoined twins who share blood type and bodily systems also have no right to life.

Abortion – any premature expulsion of a human fetus • Approximately 93% of all induced abortions are done for elective, non-medical reasons…”

Methods of abortion • First trimester: • Suction Aspiration • Dilation and Curettage • RU 486 • Methotrexate • Second and third trimesters • Dilation and Evacuation • Instillation Methods • Partial-Birth Abortion • Hysterotomy

Arguments against abortion • Personhood • A woman has the right to make a decision about her own body. • Biologically, the human zygote is a separate organism from the time of conception— genetically unique and distinct from its parents, developing according to its own genetic ‘blueprint.’ • Although the unborn entity is attached to its mother, it is not part of her. To say that the unborn entity is part of its mother is to claim that the mother possesses four legs, two heads, two noses, (no one's right to personal autonomy is so strong that it permits the arbitrary execution of others.)

Arguments against abortion (continued) • If abortion is outlawed, then mothers will be forced to care for unwanted or handicapped children; otherwise the children will have to suffer. • Abortion is the worst sort of child abuse imaginable, • Human value is not based on whether someone wants or cares for them. • What is to stop the murder of handicapped people? • This shows our selfishness in not wanting to care for the defenseless. A damaged human is not a nonhuman.

Arguments against abortion (continued) • If abortion is outlawed, we will once again find women dying from self-induced abortions or ‘back-alley butchers.’” • No statistic to support this. • Before abortion was legalized, Dr. Mary Calderone, president of Planned Parenthood, states that 90% of all illegal abortions were done by physicians.

Arguments against abortion (continued) Natural vs. Legal rights • Natural rights are those rights that you have simply because you are human. They are grounded in your human nature and you have them from the moment you begin to exist. Government does not grant these basic rights. Rather, government’s role is to protect them. • Legal (or positive) rights are those rights you can only acquire through accomplishment or maturity. These rights originate from the government and include the right to vote at your eighteenth birthday and a right to drive on your sixteenth.

Questions on Stem Cells • What are human embryonic stem cells and how are they obtained? • How are adult stem cells different from embryonic stem cells? • Is it ethical to obtain stem cells from human fetuses and umbilical cords? • Have scientists been successful in using non-embryonic stem cells to treat disease? • Have scientists been successful in using embryonic stem cells to treat disease?

Questions on Stem Cells • What is the relationship between embryonic stem cell research and "therapeutic" cloning? • Why should we value the human embryo? • Shouldn't it be ethical to allow the destruction of a few embryos in order to help the millions of people who suffer from diseases such as Parkinson's and heart disease? • What does the law say and can I have a voice?

Euthanasia Voluntary, Active Euthanasia • Mercy killing or mercy dying • Taking a human life is not the same as allowing nature to take its course by allowing a terminal patient to die. • Modern medical technology has significantly blurred the line between hastening death and allowing nature to take its course. • Active euthanasia eliminates the possibility for recovery, while passively ceasing extraordinary means may not.

Euthanasia Involuntary, Active Euthanasia • Involuntary euthanasia requires a second party who makes decisions about whether active measures should be taken to end a life. Physician-Assisted Suicide • Hippocratic Oath: "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to that effect."

Psychology [Greek: psyche (soul) + logos (word)]: The study of the soul, mind, and spirit.

Secular Humanism Psychology: Monistic Self-Actualization This psychology focuses on man's inherent goodness and predicts that every individual can achieve mental health through the fulfillment of physical or material needs. This is self-actualization. Monism means that man is only body, that no soul, mind, or conscience exist. If man is only matter, then his actions are simply the result of mechanical impulses. This notion, called behaviorism, is inconsistent because it directly contradicts the Humanist's atheistic theology and naturalistic philosophy, which claim that man, is the master of his fate.

Marxism-Leninism Psychology: Monistic Pavlovian Behaviorism Behaviorism says that everything a person does is the result of two purely material reasons: the individual's physical makeup and the influence of the environment on a person's nervous system. The brain is just a collection of nerves and blood vessels and tissues that have been programmed to react a certain way. The programming is done by a person's environment: his education, surroundings, family, background, etc. Just like Pavlov conditioned his dogs to salivate when they heard a bell, humans are conditioned to feel patriotic when they see a flag, or to rescue children from drowning. This conclusion follows logically from their materialist philosophy (only matter exists).

Cosmic Humanism Psychology: Collective Consciousness Society and the environment, according to the New Age movement, stifle our knowledge of the god within. Thus, the aim of psychology should be to cause each individual to realize that they are fundamentally perfect and therefore should trust their intuitive urges. According to the New Age doctrine, a man's true self would never urge him to contribute in any way to dis-unity.

Biblical Christianity Psychology: Dualism Only Christianity, with its emphasis on the spiritual and its understanding of man's fallen condition (Romans 1-2) can truly address the innermost concerns of the individual. Christian psychology helps people get in touch with their real selves only because it allows them to recognize their own sinfulness and consequently their need for a Savior. Our greatest need is not self-esteem; rather, it is the realization that we are sinners in rebellion against God. "Christianity starts off," says Kilpatrick, "by saying that we're not OK the way we are.

Biblical Christianity Psychology: Dualism There is something wrong with us — a twist in our natures. And the twist is not removed by liking yourself, but by starting to live in Christ." Only after receiving Christ as Savior can people begin to understand their value as creations in God's image and lead triumphant lives. Rather than demanding that the individual ignore his conscience, the Christian calls for him to recognize that his guilt is real, then to face his guilt and repent. Biblical Christianity teaches moral responsibility, whereas Humanism and Marxism blame individual moral failings on society or the environment.

3 Major categories of Modern Psychology • Self-esteem • Individual psychotherapy and counseling • Group psychotherapy

Self-esteem • Self-esteem, self-image, self-acceptance, self-worth, self-trust, self-love • Is there any relation between self-esteem and success of a person? • 1989 Mathematical skills study: • American ranked lowest • Korean ranked highest • American ranked highest in self-judged skill • Korean ranked lowest in self-judged skill • Commonality - Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin

Self-esteem • How is self-esteem different than ‘Principle of Design – Self-acceptance’? • Self-esteem • Without God • See yourself from own perspective – worth from accomplishment, other opinions, physical traits • Feel good about ourselves • Self-acceptance • With God • See yourself from God perspective – worth from God, not changed with accomplishment, etc • Boast in the Lord

Self-esteem • What are the consequences of a ‘self-esteem’ psychology? • Education - “Don’t grade them, don’t label them.” • Teacher – care with no discipline • Pursuit of happiness – pursuit of holiness • Excuse evil • Extreme self-love • Come as you are, we don’t want to change you • “You are the most important person in the whole world.” • Avoid discussion of religion • Extreme tolerance

Individual Psychotherapy • Successful therapists are described as “empathic,” “supportive,” “caring,” and “patient.” • Cognitive approaches are those that emphasize the control of thoughts, emotions, and behavior through rational strategies. • Works best for specific and clearly bounded problems. • May focus too much on past hurt  irresponsibility • May focus too much as victim • Does not include forgiveness • Does not include reconciliation

Group Psychotherapy • Alcoholics, Overeaters, … • Usually treat symptom as disease • Need moral choice and commitment to change. If a disease, one cannot do that. • Many steps have strong religious and moral components: • believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity • Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” • Forgiveness is often omitted

Beyond Psychotherapy • Forgiveness – Principle of suffering • Repentance – Principle of Responsibility - Clear Conscience • A fifty-minute hour once a week, years after the events, cannot cure the past hurt • Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a story to be lived.

Secular Humanism Sociology: Non-traditional, World State, Ethical Society Humanists use sociology to explain the huge gulf between their view that man is capable of perfection and the real world of evil. They say civilization and culture shape the individual. Thus, man is evil primarily because his cultural and social environment are evil, not through any fault of his own – society and culture have influenced man's actions and have therefore stifled this inherent goodness. One of the most stifling of human institutions is the family. Government sponsored education provides the most desirable method for abolishing outdated social institutions and ensuring the development of a free society.

Marxism-Leninism Sociology: Abolition of home, Church, and State The Marxist is especially anxious to usher in a communist society because only then will man achieve a truly moral social consciousness. (Communism is the goal of socialism.) When he has achieved this consciousness, society will be so radically changed that the individual will be influenced to act responsibly at all times. Since every man can then be trusted to act responsibly and rightly, established institutions such as the church or family will be unnecessary. In fact these would only hinder man's development or lead him astray.

Cosmic Humanism Sociology: Non-traditional home, Church, and State To explain the all-too-obvious evil done by man, the Cosmic Humanist resorts to blaming traditional society – especially the central principles of Western Civilization. Various New Age leaders blame different aspects: technology, male-dominant norms (including those of the traditional family), the free-enterprise system, a central government, and dogmatic monotheistic religions. This results in a rebellion against all traditional values without examining their reason for existence.

Biblical Christianity Sociology: home, State, and Church Christian sociology is based on the proposition that both the individual and the social order are important to God, mankind and society. Christ died and rose again for each person as an individual; God also ordained social institutions to teach love, respect, discipline, work and community; family, church and state are the three most important of these. Christian sociology focuses both on society as a means for human cooperation in accordance with God's will, and on the individual as a vital part of various social institutions in society.

Secular Humanism