Secular Humanism and Christianity the First Thing

Secular Humanism and Christianity

The first thing to remember about Secular Humanism is that it does not have a creed -- in fact, it rejects them: the Nicene Creed of the early Christian Church, for example, would not be believed by a Secular Humanist, for their religion is science. Secular Humanists have no defined beliefs concerning the origin of the human race, because they have seen no empirical data that is convincing enough to prove anything one way or another: some may believe in evolution and some may even believe in a Creator. Secular Humanists believe in the right to free inquiry (whether "ecclesiastical, political, ideological, or social") (Stevens et al. 2011).

Identity, therefore, is subjective and follows for the most part in the tradition of modern philosophical thought: humanism, after all, truly "exploded" in the West following the Renaissance and became the skeptic's preferred system of belief. Identity is based, like secular humanism itself, by employing rationality and scientific study. The meaning and/or purpose of life evident in the source from which Secular Humanism takes its values: if, as Howard Radest states, "Humanism is the incarnation of Enlightenment values and the legitimate descendent of an age of reason and freedom" -- then the purpose of life according to Humanism is idealistic: it is to effect a level of living as close to paradise as possible: it is, in a word, utopian (Radest 1990, 10).

Morality follows in the same suit: it survives on a humanist ethic that is predominantly relativistic. Many modern philosophers have attempted to explain morality and what it is, but no set system acts as a specific moral guide: often one is left to formulate his own set of morals. Destiny is also a topic that cannot accurately be gauged by Secular Humanism: if Destiny is a force that manipulates human actions, Humanists are not likely to believe in it.

Comparison

Secular Humanism and Christianity are, of course, wildly different. Christians, while they do not neglect human reason and scientific inquiry (for example, Thomas Aquinas personified both), are open to divine revelation: in fact, their belief system is based upon divine revelation -- and the fact that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ. Thereupon follows an entire tenet of beliefs (the Nicene Creed, for example).

Christianity has a clear conception of the origins of life: the Book of Genesis (believed to be the divinely revealed word of God) tells us that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). The creation of man followed, and God made a covenant with man (in the person of Adam). Adam broke the covenant, the consequences of which were death, suffering, loss of control of concupiscence, etc. God made a new covenant with man, however, through the persons of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and so on, promising to send a Redeemer to the world who would pay the debt man now owed to God and open the gates of Heaven for men.