Secular
Humanism
"Do not overlook
the value of your spiritual heritage, the river of truth running down through
the centuries, even to the barren time of a materialistic and secular
age." (Urantia Book 2082)
Many of us will not be willing to
let go of our cherished secular worldviews. We would rather not hear the truths of our failings and
deceptions. But before
very long, in the coming days of justice, every one of us will stand alone in
the light of truth on the "Day of the Lord." But we know that God’s
justice is always tempered with mercy, therefore:
Isaiah 30:18 Truly, the Lord is
waiting to show you grace,
Truly, He will arise to pardon you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Happy are all who wait for Him.
Indeed, O people in Zion, dwellers of Jerusalem, you shall not have cause to
weep. He will grant you His favor at the sound of your cry; He will respond as
soon as He hears it. My Lord will provide for you meager bread and scant water.
Then your Guide will no more be ignored, but your eyes
will watch your
Guide; and, whenever you deviate to the right
or to the left, your ears will heed the command from behind you: "This is
the road; follow it!" Here the Lord is addressing the faithful and true
remnants, as well as the downtrodden and humble. This passage applies to the
future, the end of this age, because "the Lord" has not yet arisen to
"pardon" Israel and Judah for their transgressions. However, He has
started the process of gathering some of "his peoples" back to
Israel. The pardon will follow when Melchizedek returns to heal the long-open
wounds of "his people." The
amazing statement regarding our "Guide" is exactly the teaching of
the Urantia Book, i.e., that the Kingdom of Heaven is
within us, in the form of the indwelling spirit of God, which
"guides" us from within our consciousness and keeps us from
"deviating to the right or the left" from God’s Will straight ahead. The true way, the kingdom of heaven
within, is an ancient
way although
it seems new to our modern world.
Secularism
UB 2081 The father of
secularism was the narrow minded and godless
attitude of . . . atheistic science. Secularism had its inception as a rising
protest against the domination . . . by the institutionalized Christian
church. The majority of professed Christians . . . are unwittingly
actual secularists. Secularism . . . sells man into slavish bondage to the
totalitarian state . . . the tyranny of political and economic
slavery. Secularism
can never bring peace to mankind. Nothing
can take the place of God in human society . . . Secularism
simply ignores God. More recently, secularism has assumed
a more militant attitude,
assuming to take the place of the
religion whose totalitarian bondage it one time resisted. But Beware:
this godless philosophy will lead only to unrest, animosity, unhappiness,
war, and worldwide disaster. Complete
secularization . . . can lead only
to disaster.
Those that argue that this
"disaster" lies in our past (WWII) should answer the question whether
or not secularism still governs the world of today or not. If you think that it
does, then it must follow that disaster is yet to come because "worldwide
disaster" is the result of worldwide secularism according to the Urantia
Book quotation above.
UB 2086 Christianity
unwittingly seems to sponsor a society, which
staggers under the guilt of tolerating science
without idealism,
politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure
without restraint, knowledge without character, power
without conscience, and industry without morality.
Selfish men and women simply will not pay such a price for
even the greatest spiritual treasure ever offered mortal man.
Only when man has become sufficiently disillusioned by the
sorrowful disappointment attendant
upon the foolish and
deceptive pursuits of selfishness . . . will he be disposed to
turn . . . to the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. (Man is not yet so
disillusioned)
UB 2082 During the first third of the twentieth century, Urantia
killed more human beings than were killed during the whole
dispensation of the Christian church. And this is only the
beginning. . . Still more terrible destruction is yet to come.
UB 1487 War on Urantia will never end so long as nations cling to
the illusive notions of
unlimited national sovereignty.
UB 1489 Another world war (WWII) will teach the so-called sovereign
nations to form some sort of federation, thus creating the
machinery for preventing small wars . . .(but not large
ones)
An international police force will prevent many minor wars,
but it will not be effective in preventing major wars.
Worldwide confederations of nations . . . will not prevent
world wars nor control the three, four or five most powerful
governments. (Is this applicable to today?)
UB 2082 Times of great testing and threatened defeat are always times of great revelation.
Shortly, we will be entering
this period of world crisis. Mankind’s latest Tower of Babel will fall. It will
involve not only wars but also ecological, environmental, meteorological,
financial, economic, social and political chaos. Further:
UB 1087 Institutional
religion cannot afford inspiration and provide
leadership in this impending,
worldwide social reconstruction
and economic reorganization because it has unfortunately
become more or less of an organic part of the social order and
the economic system, which is destined to undergo reconstruction.
(Doesn’t reconstruction imply deconstruction first?)
But, lest we despair:
UB 1088 The religion of
living experience finds no difficulty in keeping
ahead of all these social developments and economic upheavals,
amid which it ever functions as a moral stabilizer, social guide and spiritual
pilot.
UB 2082 A new and
fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is destined
to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism . . .(our world empire of today)
UB 2087 The hour
is striking for a
rediscovery of the true and original
foundation of present-day distorted and compromised Christianity—
the real life and teachings of Jesus. (The Kingdom of Heaven within) However:
UB 2087 The spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new
teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively
devoted to the
spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these
spirit-born souls
quickly supply the leadership and inspiration
requisite for the social,
moral, economic and political reorganization of the
world.
And why does secularism fail?
UB 1126 Those who would invent a religion (any system of strong
convictions) without God are like those who would get the
fruit without trees. . . You cannot have effects without causes.
UB 1126 Man may graft many purely humanistic branches onto his
godless religion, but such an experience is devoid of survival
values . . . only social fruits are forthcoming, not spiritual . . .
UB 2075 A lasting social system without morality predicated on
spiritual realities can no more be maintained than can a solar
system without gravity.
Secularism fails because it is
inherently faulty. Man is dependent on God whether he likes it or not. Man
cannot find his way without God. This dependence is built into the very nature
of the Father-Son relationship. And this relationship is the rock that we must build on and the star that we must hope upon.
Finally, I would note that
secular humanism gives birth to all
the present reigning
ideologies: communism, socialism, and capitalism too. "Isims" are
systems of human thought that have become so highly revered that they become
the intellectual equivalent of the ancient physical idols that were worshipped in vain.
Capitalists consider profit and capital first, last, and always. Spiritual
values, social values, and environmental values are usually not part of the
equation. Capitalism and other ideologies should be made to serve people rather
than people being made, as now, to serve the ideology. People are the purpose
and meaning of life. The
Fatherhood of God forever establishes the transcendent value of His sons and
daughters. People must
come before profit. People will come before profit. God has established it. We
live in His Universe. At this point in time however, we collectively, choose
and have chosen profit over people, and humanity languishes in the cold, dark
night of the inevitable results. Let’s now look at some quotes from Humanist
Manifestos I and II, which are the declarations of belief proposed by secular
humanists.
Secular Humanism
Humanist Manifesto I was the first major document (1933) of
the modern Humanist Movement. Consider the following quotes from this document.
"Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not
created."
To say that the universe has no
cause is the equivalent of professing belief in an astounding miracle of
infinite magnitude, unsurpassable by any human mind. And yet science, the very
study of cause and effect, is the pillar of secular humanism. Secular humanists
say that we should discard "super-natural superstitions" that are
non-scientific. The statement that the universe has no cause is not testable
and therefore non-scientific. The statement is an overt declaration of an
unfounded, unscientific, belief, no different than any other belief, including
religious varieties. My beliefs are axioms, yours are superstitions, would be
one way to express this.
"Humanism asserts that the
nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any
supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values." (Humanist Manifesto I)
Here science is used to exclude
the possibility of any "supernaturally" established values. First of
all, science can have nothing to say about the domain of intangible value, only
religion can answer the question why? Science attends only to the questions
how, when and where. Ultimate causes, origins, and destiny are questions of religion.
Second of all, humanists have already declared that the universe merely is and
is not created. This statement itself, as shown above, lies outside the natural
world of causes. It is itself a
"supernatural" explanation.
"We are convinced that the time
has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of ‘new
thought’."(Humanist Manifesto I)
Here we have stated the real
battle of the human will. Who makes the rules? God or man? Whose universe is it
anyway? The question has a real answer and if the wrong answer is given there
are real consequences that will result. We truly reap what we sow.
"In the place of the old
attitudes involved in worship and prayer the humanist finds his religious
emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative
effort to promote social well-being."
The fruits of the spirit (peace,
happiness, and joy) will only grow from a good tree rooted in God’s spirit. All
goodness comes from God, man has no goodness of his own, regardless of the
words he may utter.
"Man will learn to face the
crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability.
Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by
custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene
and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful
thinking." (Humanist Manifesto I)
Now it is revealed that secular
humanists are "reasonable and manly." Theists are therefore
superstitious and weak, and they rely on fantasy religion, the "opiate of
the masses." "Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is
responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has
within himself the
power for its achievement. He
must set intelligence and will to the task."
Man is capable of doing anything
and everything. This sounds great, unfortunately it lacks truth. Man needs God.
We can assert our power and mastery, but our experiences reveal our
insignificance. This phrase from the Urantia Book comes back again and again to
my mind, "our arrogance outruns our reason." Pride goeth before the
fall.
Now we go to Humanist Manifesto II written in 1973. (select passages)
"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. Salvationism, based on mere
affirmation, still appears as harmful, diverting people with false hopes of
heaven hereafter. Reasonable minds look to other means for survival."
We now learn that faith is
unproved, ineffective, and outmoded. How many studies have we ever done to
actually find out if there are any differences in the lives of believers vs.
non-believers? The answer is zero. I would bet that you would find dramatic
differences if such a study were done without bias. In fact, a few recent
medical studies have shown strong correlations between faith and positive
health outcomes. The
humanist dogma is succumbing to truth. Lastly, to say that faith is unproved is the equivalent of
saying nothing because there would be no faith necessary if proof were
possible. Similarly, one can prove anything in mathematics if one allows
dividing by zero as this statement does.
"Humanism can provide the
purpose and inspiration that so many seek; it can give personal meaning and
significance to human life." (Humanist. Manifesto. II)
If this were true, we would
probably be in great shape. But it isn’t and we aren’t. Establishing purpose
and meaning to life without God is like establishing a solar system without the
sun. In both situations, planets or people fly apart. "We affirm a
set of common principles that can serve as a basis for united action – positive
principles relevant to the present human condition. They are a design for
a secular society on a planetary scale." This reveals the grand
scope (planetary) that this vision is being applied to. The United Nations
charter is a direct outgrowth of these planetary Humanist Manifestos. Will it work? "We find
insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a super-natural; it is
either meaningless or irrelevant to the question of survival and fulfillment of
the human race. As non theists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity.
Nature may indeed be broader and deeper than we now know; any new discoveries,
however, will but enlarge our know-ledge of the natural."
Here, the victory over theism is
openly stated and confidently relied on to predict that "new discoveries"
will only add to the conviction. How can unknown discoveries already be known
to be explainable by what we presently know? This is another statement of
arrogance, not reason. "The preciousness and dignity of the individual
person is a central humanist value." The aspirations appear noble at times. Give credit where credit
is due. Success requires more than good intentions though. It requires wisdom
and truth. "People are more important than decalogues, rules,
proscriptions, or regulations."
Great, but are people also more
important even than profit? The world system answers no. And why are
regulations, bureaucracies, and rules allowed to remove the human touch from
our social interactions? We loose opportunities to serve our fellow man. Since
man has no intrinsic value other than what we decide to give him (according to
secular humanism), when push comes to shove, these floating, man made, values
are easily put aside. After all isn't "everything relative?"
Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O Lord, that man’s road is not his to choose,
That man, as he walks cannot
direct his
own steps.
Secular humanism assumes that
man is capable of building his own world and using his own rules and values.
The only problem with this assumption is merely that it is false and is being
proven false as we speak. Man not only should want God, but more importantly
man needs God and is dependent on Him for everything. This layer of necessity
will be laid bare for all to see. The failure of man’s sovereign rule is a
valuable lesson for all who look upon us. Man and God are incomplete without
one another. They are related as parent is to child.
UB 2082 The inherent weakness of secularism
is that it discards ethics and
religion for politics and power.
Has this happened? If it is still true, then it follows that we are still in
big trouble.
UB 2082 Secular
social and political optimism is an illusion. Without God,
neither freedom and liberty, nor property and wealth will lead to
peace. You simply cannot establish the brotherhood of men without
the Fatherhood of God. A lasting social system without a morality
predicated on spiritual realities can no more be maintained than
could a solar system without gravity.
No matter how hard we hope that
our secular systems will "evolve smoothly" into spiritual based
systems, it doesn’t change the evidence arrayed against that possibility.
Smooth gradual physical evolution is punctuated
by rapid, dramatic and
unpredictable changes. "When physical conditions are ripe, sudden mental evolutions may occur, when mind
status is propitious, sudden
spiritual transformations may occur…" (UB 740).
The Teacher of Righteousness
knows the futility of "man’s way" from his own experience of
sinfulness and error.
Hymn 12 The way of man is not established
Thanksgiving except
by the spirit which God created for him
Hymns to make a
perfect way for the children of men.
With such words, the
Teacher of Righteousness reveals a personal understanding of the Kingdom of
Heaven within, the new
covenant of God and man. The Teacher of Righteousness has learned to abandon
himself completely to the Will of God, through the leading of the spirit
within. This verse (Hymn 12) could also be considered the first critique of
secular humanism.
Jerusalem and much of modern
Israel are primarily secular in their outlook at this point in time. They have
drifted away from God for "want of knowledge" and the truth of God.
The majority of these people of modern Israel will suffer drought, famine, and military
disaster as a result. Only a small faithful remnant of Judah which is comprised
of some who stay in Jerusalem during war and some who are gathered from exile
when Melchizedek arrives in Bozrah (located in Southern Jordan). In addition to
the two components of the Judah (Jewish) remnant, there will be added the
Israel remnant of faithful Christians, among whom will be the elect, who:
4Q160 Shall take refuge in Thy
house…Amid the rage of the enemies of Thy
Fr 3-5 people…and
all the peoples of Thy lands shall know that Thou hast
Samuel created them (the elect)…and the multitudes shall understand that
this
Apocryphon
is Thy people…Thy holy ones whom Thou hast sanctified.
(Teacher of
Righteousness)
The "righteous are confident
that sinners will be disgraced" because all of this has been revealed to
them through 1Enoch and other prophets of scripture as well. Wealth "is
suddenly ascended"away from the wealthy who covet in 96:6. The
"crafty" men are "adorned more than women" in stylish and
expensive clothes (not to mention haircuts). As we read these woes of those who
choose sin and iniquity, we remember that the Urantia Book depicts Jesus as saying that although God is understanding
of our frailties, he is relentless and even ruthless when it comes to rooting
out sin and iniquity. We of the modern age are not accustomed to hearing such
"harsh" verbiage as we have been taught that there really is no right
and wrong; just differing but equally valid points of view. The words evil,
sin, and iniquity are almost never used anymore. We will tolerate anything and
everything, except the moral-religious perspective, of course. There is a covert war on God
on this world and it is waged by the powerful elite, the
"intellectuals," the propagandists, the government, and the media
establishment. Our public schools are instruments for the indoctrination of an
alternate, unacknowledged, value system of no-values; the official,
unannounced, state religion. This secular humanistic state is slowly enslaving
its citizens and will lead them into crisis. The war against God has only one possible outcome,
and that outcome is, and forever will be, failure! The most difficult task is teaching
the well intentioned that such a war actually exists. The well intentioned project their own
intentions onto the intentions of others, because the reality of evil intent is
so totally foreign and so totally irrational to them. But evil and iniquity does exist and unless we learn to recognize
it, we will continue to be its victims. Jesus has spoken well: "Be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves." To be
as wise as serpents we must first recognize and understand those serpents of
wrong choosing.
Our financial system is a fraud;
it is a deceptive way to transfer wealth from the working man to the banker.
Everything not based on a foundation of integrity, honesty, and sincerity will
collapse of its own weight. For
a social system to endure, mans way must become God’s way. Is this what will happen to our financial
system and our financial assets?
Nostradamus Treasure is placed
in a Temple by Western citizens
10Q81 Withdrawn there to
a secret place:
The Temple opened by hungry bonds
Recaptured, ravished, a terrible prey in their midst.
The treasure is
"treasuries" or financial assets in general. The Temple is the bank. The bank
is our Temple where we worship money and wealth. "Where your treasure is, there
will be your heart also." (Gospels) We’ve replaced God and His grace with
money and wealth as our object of worship. Our God is money. Financial assets
are brought to a secret place where the assets are borrowed against and
leveraged into risky investments by the bankers. Debt eventually implodes
(symbolized by "hungry bonds") and the assets are
"ravished," becoming worthless.
There is a book Secrets of the Temple, by William Greider, 1987, which
exposes this Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve System was the crucial
anomaly at the very core of representative democracy, an uncomfortable
contradiction with the civic mythology of self-government. Yet the American
system accepted the inconsistency. The Community of elected politicians
acquiesced to its power. The private economy responded to its direction.
Private capital depended on it for protection. The governors of the Federal
Reserve decided the largest questions of the political economy, including who
shall prosper and who shall fail, yet their
role remained opaque and mysterious.
The Federal Reserve was shielded from scrutiny partly by its own official secrecy, but also by the curious ignorance of the
American public.
(Secrets
of the Temple,
pg. 12)
Money was like the sacred totem in a primitive culture, a mysterious object
that efficiently expressed the larger social reality. In the American culture
formed by democratic capitalism, money was
the sacred totem. The common faith shared by
Americans was secular rationalism and
the social order was defined by the scientific abstractions surrounding money.
Yet religious mystery was still required – priests and ritual, sacred secrets
that sustained belief. If one understood money’s secrets, the true nature of
the American social reality was made plain. Money revealed compromised ideals in the civic order. Limitations were imposed on the idea of
democracy and sovereign citizens passively accepted them. Money defined the
social hierarchy, the rank ordering of citizens, which valued some above
others. Money expressed the culture’s deepest longings and obsessions, the
fretful belief that a dead substance could somehow confer immortal life on
those who accumulated it. Money was a living
creed in American life,
as Veblen said, a more convincing realty than human toil or material needs or
the tenuous things of the human spirit.
If the secrets of the temple
were revealed, the money mystery would dissolve and people would have to look
upon these things directly. Taboos uncoded lost their power to persuade.
Americans would see the full terms that bound them together as a society, the
deals that were made in their name and the harsh rituals. They would stand
before the awesome authority to which free
citizens deferred. They
would know at last what it was they really believed in.
The mystery was necessary,
therefore, to sustain social faith. Knowledge was disturbing. Not knowing the
secrets was reassuring. If Americans
were afraid to look inside the temple, perhaps it was because they feared to
see the truth about themselves. (Secrets
of the Temple, pg.
716-717,William Greider)
Now consider the presently
reigning world system and world religion – secular humanism. Government by the
elite substitutes for God and is the answer to every need and every problem.
The High Priest is replaced by the scientist who knows all, explains all, and
who conquers all. Man has put his trust and faith in "science" and in
government. God doesn’t seem to be necessary. Man is the measure of all things.
Man can succeed on his own, with his own brain and his own laws and his own
values. Gone are the moral strictures, gone are the Ten Commandments, gone are
right and wrong, gone are accountability, responsibility, and duty.
The above presentation is a quote from the book, The-Kingdom-of-Heaven-is-at-Hand by Edmund J. Roache, MD.
Secular Humanism = A religion without God.