Biblical Christian Worldview and Secular Humanism Worldview - Research Paper Example

Biblical Christian Worldview and Secular Humanism Worldview Introduction “Absolute truth belongs only to one class of humans...the class of absolute fools”1Even though science and technology has developed a lot, the miseries surrounding life before birth and after death is still not unveiled. While atheists or secular human believe in natural evolution theory and the superior power of human over everything in the world, others believe that everything in this universe is controlled by God. Some religions like Hindus believe in multi God theory whereas most of the other religions believe in single God theory. The definition or perception of the God by different religions is different. Christians believe in single God theory in which they believe that God is responsible for creating and controlling the entire universe and the resources inside the universe. They believe that God is an eternal entity without origin or death. In fact birth and death are created by God in this world in order to execute certain missions as per the beliefs of Christians. Religionists believe in the superpower of God and they argue that God is an indefinable entity for human being and the human wisdom is not good enough to compete against the God’s wisdom. They also believe that creator has superior power than creations and creations cannot question the sovereignty of the creator. ‘Christian theism is better with respect to liveability according to Christians”2 Humanism is defined as "any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity are taken to be of primary importance3. It support reasons, ethics and justice. Secular humanism originated in the twentieth century and the activists of secular humanism are mainly atheists. Secular Humanists believe that Humanism cannot in any fair sense of the word apply to one who still believes in God as the source and creator of the universe and humanism contends that instead of the gods creating the cosmos, the cosmos created the gods4. Many secular groups, such as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism and the American Rationalist Federation, and many otherwise unaffiliated academic philosophers and scientists, advocate this philosophy5. “America once stood on the foundation of God's Word. But that foundation is crumbling – even in the church – and being replaced by man's word, observed one Christian apologist”6. This paper analyses the practical dialectics with respect to the Biblical Christian Worldview vs Secular Humanism Worldview. Basic arguments of Christians "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ”7. Bible has predicted most of the things correctly as per the Christians. In other words, bible has foreseen the movements like secular humanism and warned the believers against the traps these activists may probably make with the help of the evil force; Satan. Christians believe that human knows nothing about the secret of life and still what we know are far less than what we don’t know about life. The interpretations of things around us by the atheists or secular humans are purely based on their intellectual power, but human intellectual power is limited when compared to the superpower of the God. Christians explains the history of human as per the teachings of Holy Bible. It says that God has created sky and earth at the beginning; then light, sea and all the other living and nonliving things subsequently. God has created human in the sixth day in his own shape and has given control of all the living and nonliving things on earth to the human. God took rest in the seventh day after he has started his creation as per the holy bible8. Christians believe that Bible is the base for life for human beings. They also believe that sin has come to earth through the first human Adam and it has transferred to us genetically using gene transfer. In other words, we are all sinners simply because of the sins of the first human Adam as per Christian beliefs. God has decided to wipe out this sin and sent his only son Jesus Christ to the world in order save us from death, the punishment of sins as per God’s doctrine. The sacrifice of Jesus’ life on Cross was preplanned by God in order to make us free from the responsibilities of sins committed by Adam. God has decided that those who believe in Jesus Christ will get salvation and the nonbelievers will get punishments based on the extent of sins they committed as per the Christian doctrines. Basic arguments of secular humanists Philosophically, Secular Humanists are a kind of naturalists. They believe that nature is all that exists - the material world is all that exists. There is no God, no spiritual dimension, and no afterlife. The arguments of secular humanists can be summarised in Carl Sagan’s (One of the famous secular humanist and autonomist) words: “The universe is all that is or ever was or ever will be”9. The most important thing about this argument is that they are keeping a meaningful silence about the origin of the universe. It is an accepted fact that nothing is created from emptiness as we know that no new objects are entering the world from emptiness. Secular humanists start their argument from big bang theory. The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our universe. According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. Our universe is thought to have begun as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something - a singularity. After its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our current universe10 What is this singularity and from where does it come from? Nobody knows. Secular humans start their explanation of universe from here. Some of them have argued that this singularity is nothing but hydrogen clouds because of the presence of hydrogen in all the stellar objects. In other words the conversion of hydrogen into helium (nuclear fusion) is the cause of huge energy liberation from stars. Nuclear fusion in stars is one of the most important reasons which makes life on Earth possible. The initial starting particles for nuclear fusion in stars are Hydrogen nuclei and Helium nuclei. You may ask, where were these initial starting particles of nuclear fusion created? Hydrogen was not created in the belly of a star. Hydrogen and Helium were formed in Big Bang nucleosynthesis11. They are keeping a silence about from where does this singularity or hydrogen clouds come from. Once the secular humanists were allowed to start from the unknown matter; singularities or hydrogen clouds, they will explain everything logically. In their opinion, after big bang the stars and the planets were created and when the earth was cooled to a particular level, suitable environment has created for evolution and the history of living things started from evolution. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor: the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers -- all related. Darwin's general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) "descent with modification". That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival -- a process known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism12 Darwin’s theory is under crisis at present because the question why the natural selection process ceased after the evolution of human has no answer from the secular humanists. If the evolution theory was right, human should have proceeded to another three four stages. But so far we have no evidence that any new species originated from human being. “Christianity and secular humanism are akin to scientific theories in that they are both models of reality that try to fit the evidence with an overarching description of the nature of things”13. Thus when we analyse basic arguments of both Christians and secular humanists, we will have more doubts rather than clarity. Comparison and more comprehensive analysis of the above arguments will give us clearer picture about the basics of the two. Secular humanism vs. Christianity Humanists believe that mankind is the supreme authority in this universe whereas Christians believe that God is the highest authority. Even though the importance of other living things are not underestimated, secular humanists believe that all the other living things are evolved just to support the human being. Even though we are unable to unveil many of the miseries surrounding life, secular humanists believe that we have only one life and that is in this earth only. They believe that there is no point in going after the question where we go after death. As per scientific theories, energy can neither be created nor be destroyed and the total amount of energy in the universe is a constant14. But every body knows that some form of energy is responsible for driving human life on earth. Without energy or soul human body cannot function and the presence of this energy in human body is accepted even by the secular humanists. But they are keeping silence over what will happen to this energy after death. On the other hand, Christians believe that only the body dies after death and the soul/energy has no death at all. They argue that soul cannot be destroyed and souls of good human beings will get eternity or salvation after final judgment. Secular humanists believe that Jesus Christ, if He existed at all, was a mere man. He may have been an interesting teacher, but when he died, he stayed dead like any other man15. Secular humanists are of the view that Jesus was just an ordinary man like all the others and divine power attached to Jesus was fake. On the other hand Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation for humans. They believe that Jesus is the only son of God and the saviour of human kind. They also believe that Jesus has accepted death on cross just to fulfil the commitments of his father God to humankind. God has the doctrine that in order to wipe off the sins caused by Adam, a sinless person should sacrifice his life. But, all the human on earth are originated from Adam and hence they are sinners. Bible says that not a single person in the world is free from sins. So in order to keep the God’s principles and laws intact, God has decided to send his only son who is sinless to earth. Thus Jesus came to earth as per the decisions made by God. Christians believe that Jesus has established his claim on humankind when he accepted the death on cross. Christian belief is also based on the belief of Jesus’ resurrection. They believe that Jesus has defeated death and resurrected to heaven on the third day after his death. Secular humanists believe that the theory of evolution is scientific and no other theories are succeeded in getting the scientific base. For example, they argue that God is not visible to anybody and we cannot measure any Godly acts. In other words, it is impossible for us to experience the presence of God with the help of our senses and it i illogical to believe in something beyond our sense as per atheists. At the same time Christians believe that it was God who created the human and senses and humanly senses cannot dominate the senses of the God. They believe that only believers can experience the presence of God because of their right attitude. The normal senses cannot measure the Godly act and a sixth sense of faith is necessary for communicating with God as per Christian belief. Secular humanists consider bible as a work of human. They believe that whatever the things written in Bible is the imaginations of intelligent writers of ancient time. On the other hand Christians believe that Biblical words are given by God to the human being through prophets and divine people time to time in order to guide the humankind to eternity the ultimate target of life. Humanists believe that there is no absolute right and wrong. Everything depends on the situation16. Even though humanists respect the social laws and regulations, they normally object the moral laws or religious laws. They argue that human has only on life and that in this earth itself. The concepts of heaven and hell are imaginary things in their opinion. On the other hand, Christians visualise the life on earth as a temporary one and they are looking forward to the permanent or eternal life once their assignments in earth is over. Humanists believe in freedom, not licence or licentiousness. Freedom of choice should not imply that”17. Secular humanists respect the freedom of human being. At the same time they believe that social laws are necessary for the strength of the society. At the same time Christians believe that freedom is limited to human being. It is impossible for human to act freely even if they have the desire to do so. All the actions will be screened through the eyes of Christian principles by the Christians in order to justify or rejects them. Humanism on the other hand, is not a religion and it has no formal creed, though humanists have beliefs18. Secular humanism believes that universe is mechanical and we can achieve more by using reason. It is not a centralized philosophy and it can occur in different forms. Secular humanists believe that humans come first 19. “Secular Humanism teaches "man-centeredness", the idea that  the whole universe must therefore revolve around man”20. Secular humanists believe in the superpower of human rather than God. They argue that it was not the human but the Gods are the created ones or simply creations. They are of the opinion that different religions have different Gods and that itself is an evidence for the argument that the concept of God was a created one. On the other hand, Christians believe that it was not the God, but the human are the creations. Humanists believe that humanity is only physical whereas Christians believe that it is both physical and spiritual, having been made both from “the dust of the ground21. Spiritual things are meaningless for secular humanists and they believe only in what they sense in this world. On the other hand for Christians the world is made of both physical and spiritual things. Holy bible says that God has created human body from dust and transferred the spirit through the nose of human to make him alive. They also argue that when a human dies, only the physical thing which is taken from the earth (dust) will be destroyed whereas the spiritual thing which came from the God will not die. Christians generally believe that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own22. The beliefs of Christians are valuable to them and same way beliefs of Hindus and Muslims are valuable to them also. But these beliefs are often contradictory. While Christians argue that the Jesus is the only way to salvation other religions also claim type of things. In other words, atheists believe that it is impossible for the world to work under different Gods. Secular humanists argue that the God who made the world and all things in it, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things23. On the other hand, Christians believe that God has certain plan on every human’s life and all the acts in human life will happen with the knowledge of God. They also argue that creations should have a commitment towards the creator. For example, we make and use computers for reducing our work. But the computer doesn’t know what services it provides to his master. Similarly God create us for some purpose which we are unable to know. The humanists might make their gains on the back of others without any consideration of the interests of others24. But Christians give more importance to the interests of others. They believe in helping others and selfish interests are not allowed in Christian life. Conclusions Absolute truth cannot be identifiable using human intelligence. What we know about this world is less than we don’t know about earth and its surroundings. Even though science has developed a lot and many of the miseries were unable to answer the basic question from where we come and where we go. The life after death is more or less a worrying factor for all the humans including atheists or secular humanists. What is happening to our soul or energy after death seems to be an important question which needed to be answered both by the Christians and secular humanists. Till this question answered correctly without leaving any doubts, personally, I feel that the arguments of Christians have more base than the arguments of secular humans. It is difficult to believe that the universe is evolved out of nothing or the universe is functioning without any control. On the other hand, absolute belief in God and His power will force us to leave out all the concerns and worries about our existence and life after death. Bibliography 1. Big bang theory: an overview, 2010, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.big-bang-theory.com/ 2. Buzzle.com, Nuclear fusion in stars, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/nuclear-fusion-in-stars.html 3. Christianity vs. Secular Humanism, 2010, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://teapotatheism.blogspot.com/2010/02/christianity-vs-secular-humanism-part-1.html 4. Clay, Jimmy 2009, Discovering Secular Humanism: Answers for the Novice and the Curious, Publisher: CreateSpace (May 25, 2009), p. 1-2 5. Christianity vs. Secular Humanism, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.fightingsecularhumanism.com/ 6. Darwin’s theory of evolution: A theory in crisis, 2010, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.allaboutscience.org/darwins-theory-of-evolution.htm 7. Frederick Edwords, What is Humanism? accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.jcn.com/humanism.html 8. Good News Bible: Colossians 2:8, 2003, Bible Society of India, Bangalore 9. Hall Steve, 2005, Christian? or Secular Humanist? , accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.aboundingjoy.com/humanism_chart.htm 10. Herrick, Jim 2005, Humanism: An Introduction, Publisher: Prometheus Books; illustrated edition edition (January 2005), p. 1-2 11. Jones, Andrew Zimmerman, 2010, Major Laws of Physics, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://physics.about.com/od/physics101thebasics/p/PhysicsLaws.htm 12. Kurtz,Paul 1983, In Defense of Secular Humanism, Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 1983), p. 5 13. Kwon Lillian, 2010, Apologist: Christianity Losing Out to Secular Humanism? accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100217/apologist-christianity-losing-out-to-secular-humanism/index.html 14. LilCaliga, 2010, Historical and practical distinctions between Christian and secular humanism, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.helium.com/items/234465-historical-and-practical-distinctions-between-christian-and-secular-humanism 15. Robbins Wesley J, Secular Humanism, Christian Theism, and the meaning of life, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/wesley_robbins/moreland.html 16. Sam Harris, 2010, Reply to a Christian, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=sharris_26_4 17. Secular Humanism, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.greatcom.org/resources/handbook_of_todays_religions/04chap03/default.htm 18. Thompson Bert, Ph.D. THE CHRISTIAN’S RESPONSE TO HUMANISM, accessed on 13 March 2010 http://www.apologeticspress.org/rr/reprints/Christians-Response-to-Humanism.pdf, p.1 19. Waggoner Robert L., Humanism vs. Christianity, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.thebible1.net/biblicaltheism/humanchrist.htm 20. What is Secular Humanism?, Christian Answers Network, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/sum-r002.html 21. Worley Brian, 2009,  Secular Humanism: The Best Post-Christian Alternative, accessed on 13 March 2010 from http://www.exminister.org/Secular-Humanism.html Read More