"Humanism" is considered a positive idea by
the majority of people. It brings to mind notions such as love of
humanity, peace and brotherhood. But, the philosophical meaning of
humanism is much more significant: humanism is a way of thinking that
posits the concept of humanity as its focus and only goal. In other words,
it calls human beings to turn away from God their Creator, and concern
themselves with their own existence and identity. A common dictionary
defines humanism as: "a system of thought that is based on the values,
characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be best in human
beings, rather than on any supernatural authority."
The clearest definition of humanism,
however, has been put forward by those who espoused it. One of the most
prominent modern spokesmen for humanism is Corliss Lamont. In his book
The Philosophy of Humanism, the author writes:
[In sum] humanism believes that nature
... constitutes the sum total of reality, that matter-energy and not
mind is the foundation stuff of the universe and that supernatural
entities simply do not exist. This nonrealistic of the supernatural
means, on the human level, that men do not possess supernatural and
immortal souls; and, on the level of the universe as a whole, that our
cosmos does not possess a supernatural and eternal God.
As we can see, humanism is almost identical
to atheism, and this fact is freely admitted by humanists. There were two
important manifestos published by humanists in the last century. The first
was published in 1933, and was signed by some important individuals of
that time. Forty years later, in 1973, a second humanist manifesto was
published which confirmed the first, but contained some additions relative
to some developments that had occurred in the meantime. Thousands of
thinkers, scientists, writers and members of the media signed the second
manifesto, which is supported by the still very active American Humanist
Association.
When we examine the manifestos, we find one
basic foundation in each of them: the atheist dogma that the universe and
human beings were not created but exist independently, that human beings
are not responsible to any other authority besides themselves, and that
belief in God has retarded the development of individuals and societies.
For example, the first six articles of the first Humanist Manifesto are as
follows:
-
Religious
humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
-
Humanism
believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as the
result of a continuous process.
-
Holding an
organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind
and body must be rejected.
-
Humanism
recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly
depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual
development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with
his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is
largely molded by that culture.
-
Humanism
asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes
unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values...
-
We are
convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the
several varieties of "new thought."
In the above articles, we see the
expression of a common philosophy that manifests itself under such names
as materialism, Darwinism, atheism and agnosticism. In the first article,
the materialist dogma of the eternal existence of the universe is put
forward. The second article states, as the theory of evolution does, that
human beings were not created. The third article denies the existence of
the human soul claiming that human beings are composed of matter. The
fourth article proposes a "cultural evolution" and denies the existence of
a divinely ordained human nature (a special human nature given in
creation). The fifth article rejects God's sovereignty over the universe
and humanity, and the sixth states that it is time to reject "theism,"
that is belief in God.
It will be noticed that these claims are
stereotypical ideas, typical of those circles that are hostile to true
religion. The reason for this is that humanism is the main foundation of
anti-religious sentiment. This is because humanism is an expression of
"man's reckoning that he will be left to go on unchecked," which has
been the primary basis, throughout history, for the denial of God. In one
verse of the Qur'an, God says:
- Does man reckon he will be left to go on
unchecked?
- Was he not a drop of ejaculated sperm,
- then a blood-clot which He created and
shaped,
- making from it both sexes, male and female?
- Is He who does this not able to bring
the dead to life? (Qur'an, 75: 36-40)
God says that people are not to be "left to
go on unchecked," and reminds them immediately afterwards that they are
His creation. This is because, when a person realizes that he is a
creation of God, he understands that he is not "unchecked" but responsible
before God.
The basic doctrine of humanist philosophy
is the claim that human beings are not created. The first two articles of
the first Humanist Manifesto give an expression to this doctrine.
According to the first article of the Humanist Manifesto, the universe is
self-existing and has not been created. And second article states that man
is a part of nature and that he has emerged as the result of a continuous
process, which in fact implies the theory of evolution. In this respect,
humanists maintain that science supports these claims.
However, they are wrong. Since the first
Humanist Manifesto was published, the two premises that humanists have
presented as scientific facts—the idea that the universe is eternal and
the theory of evolution—have collapsed:
-
The idea that the universe is eternal
was invalidated by a series of astronomical discoveries made when the
first Humanist Manifesto was being written. Discoveries such as the
fact that the universe is expanding have shown that the universe had a
beginning, and that it came to be from nothing some 15-17 billion years
ago in a giant explosion called the "Big Bang." Although those who espouse
the humanist and materialist philosophy were unwilling to accept the Big
Bang theory, they were eventually won over. As a result of the scientific
evidence that has come to light, the scientific community has finally
accepted the Big Bang theory, that is, that the universe had a beginning,
and therefore humanists have no argument.
-
The theory of evolution, the most
important scientific justification behind the first Humanist Manifesto,
started to lose ground in the decades after it was written. It is
known today that the scenario proposed for the origin of life by atheist
(and no doubt humanist) evolutionists, such as A. I. Oparin and J. B. S.
Haldane in the 1930's, has no scientific validity; living things cannot be
generated spontaneously from non-living matter as proposed by this
scenario. The fossil record demonstrates that living things did not
develop through a process of small cumulative changes, but appeared
abruptly with their distinct characteristics, and this fact has been
accepted by evolutionist paleontologists themselves since the 1970's.
Modern biology has demonstrated that living things are not the result of
chance and natural laws, but that there are in each organism complex
systems indicating an intelligent design that is evidence for creation.
Moreover, the erroneous claim that
religious belief was the factor that prevented humanity from progressing
and drew it into conflict has been disproved by historical experience.
Humanists have claimed that the removal of religious belief would make
people happy and at ease, however, the opposite has proved to be the case.
Six years after the first Humanist Manifesto was published, the Second
World War broke out, a record of the calamity brought upon the world by
the secular fascist ideology. The humanist ideology of communism wreaked,
first on the people of the Soviet Union, then on the citizens of China,
Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and various African and Latin
American countries, unparalleled savagery. A total of 120 million people
were killed by communist regimes or organizations. It is also evident that
the Western brand of humanism (capitalist systems) has not succeeded in
bringing peace and happiness to their own societies or to other areas of
the world.
In short, the supposed scientific
justification behind humanism has been proven invalid and its promises
vain. Nevertheless, humanists have not abandoned their philosophy, but
rather, in fact, have tried to spread it throughout the world through
methods of mass propaganda. Especially in the post-war period there has
been intense humanist propaganda in the fields of science, philosophy,
music, literature, art and cinema. The attractive but hollow messages
created by humanist ideologues have been insistently imposed upon the
masses. The song "Imagine," by John Lennon, soloist of the most popular
music group of all times, the Beatles, is an example of this:
Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if
you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people
Living for today... Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too... You may say
I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one…
This song was chosen as the "song of the
century" in several polls that were held in 1999. This is a good
indication of the sentimentality with which humanism, lacking any
scientific or rational foundation, is imposed on the masses. When the
promises of the 1933 I. Humanist Manifesto proved vain, forty years passed
after which humanists presented a second draft. At the beginning of the
text was an attempt to explain why the first promises had come to nothing.
Despite the fact that this explanation was extremely weak, it demonstrated
the enduring attachment of humanists to their atheist philosophy.
The most obvious characteristic of the
manifesto was its preservation of the anti-religious line of the 1933
manifesto:
As in 1933, humanists still believe
that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God,
assumed to live and care for persons, to hear and understand their
prayers, and to be able to do something about them, is an unproved and
outmoded faith… We believe ...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... As non-theists, we begin with humans not God, nature not
deity.
However, the efforts of humanists to
describe faith in God and monotheistic religions as groundless and
outmoded creeds is actually not a new undertaking; it is the emulation of
a claim that has been made for thousands of years by those who reject God.
In the Qur'an, God explains this age-old argument propounded by the
unbelievers:
Your God is One God. As for those who
do not believe in the hereafter, their hearts are in denial and they
are puffed up with pride. There is no doubt that God knows what they
keep secret and what they make public. He does not love people puffed
up with pride. When they are asked, "What has your Lord sent down?"
they say, "Myths and legends of previous peoples."
(Qur'an, 16: 22-24)
This verse reveals that the real reason of
the unbelievers' rejection of religion is the arrogance hidden in their
hearts. The philosophy called humanism is merely the outward manner by
which this age rejects God. In other words, humanism is not a new way of
thinking, as those who espouse it claim; it is an age-old, antiquated
world-view common to those who reject God out of arrogance. (For further
reading, see "Global Freemasonry" by Harun Yahya)
