If there were ever a collision of worldviews secular humanism and Christianity would be the perfect two candidates. Just a quick look at the American Humanist Association website shows the association’s tag line, right under their logo: GOOD WITHOUT A GOD.1
Secular humanism, simply put, is a man-centered philosophy that places its confidence in the following five tenets:
• There is no God.
• Evolution is the process that brought man into existence.
• There are no such things as absolute morals.
• Man is the supreme crowning glory of the universe.
• Man is innately good.
Christianity is diametrically opposed to each one of these propositions. We believe that there is a God – Jesus, that evolution is a bankrupt theory, that there are absolute moral principles, that Jesus is the crowning glory of the universe, and that man is innately sinful. And it is on this last point that I would like to share some thoughts – is man innately good?
The secular humanist rejects the idea of a “sin nature.” As a result, his concept of human nature is very different from that of a Christian. To the Christian, before he comes to Christ, his human nature is steeped in sin and no matter how hard he tries he, by himself, can never break out of its evil clutches. To the secular humanist all behavior is ok, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Again, he is an expert in rationalizing that the behaviors he wants to engage in are therefore fine. With no belief in absolute morals a secular humanist can almost justify any type of behavior. Sadly, secular humanists can never offer a solution to the human condition because he sees our problems originating from outside of himself. Consequently, rather than look inwardly he blames all of the problems we see all around us on society.
For the Christian, he realizes that our human nature is deeply flawed and sinful. Rather than blame society for all of our problems he realizes that his human sin nature is the root cause of all of society’s ills. And that’s why you can’t legislate morality because unless there is a change in the inner man society will never change for the better just by implementing human laws.
Take for example man’s attempt to improve society through changing the system of government to communism. Referring to communism’s track record during the last 100 years, Daniel Mann astutely comments: “Why had every one of these promising experiments failed? Perhaps the communists had misdiagnosed the problem, and assumed that if they changed the society, they could also improve the man. Perhaps, instead, the inner man needs to be changed before society can be meaningfully changed.”2
According to the Scriptures human nature is where all of the world’s problems originate. For we read in (Jeremiah 17:9): “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” And (Romans 3:10-12) says: “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.’”
Secular humanism, because it has a wrong view of human nature, will never be able to solve humanity’s problems. And nor will it be able to bring about true joy and peace to its adherents since real peace and joy are by-products of having an intimate relationship with our Creator. And since the secular humanist doesn’t believe in God, he is left to his own futile attempts to find purpose in a world that is here by chance (evolution).
In closing having a correct worldview of human nature is the key to solving man’s problems – the chief one being himself!
1 AHA – American Humanist Association
2 Mann’s Word: SELF-IMPROVEMENT, WORLD CHANGE, AND HUMAN NATURE (mannsword.blogspot.com)