“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life . . .” (John 14:6)
Humanism is that worldview that makes man the center of all things and exalts human reason to a position of either equality with, or even superiority over, divine revelation (i.e., the Bible). Humanism exists in two forms, secular and religious. Secular humanism is the atheistic form of humanism. It rejects the existence of God, so it must be committed solely to naturalistic explanations for the origin of the universe and life. Today, it embraces the Big Bang Theory to explain the origin of the universe (which violates both the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics) and the Theory of Evolution to explain the origin and development of life (which violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics). It peddles these theories as “science”, though they violate the most fundamental, well-validated laws upon which all science is founded (cf. Ps14:1; Rom1:22). Secular humanism is the dominant worldview in America today, and public education, from kindergarten through graduate school, is a taxpayer-funded system committed to indoctrinating American youth in it. Secular humanism is the clearly declared enemy of the Bible-believing Christian.
But humanism also exists in a religious form. Religious humanism has a veneer that can appear religious, even Christian, and it can even profess to believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but behind the façade is an absolute commitment to naturalistic explanations in the arena of science. Religious humanism accepts the Big Bang and Evolution as proven by “science” (i.e., these are the instruments God used to “create”), so it embraces non-literal ways of interpreting the Bible in order to accommodate them. As a contemporary example of this, consider the quote from Dr. Francis Collins, current Director of the National Institutes of Heath, and founder of the BioLogos Foundation:
Foundational to the BioLogos vision is the belief that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God… We have found that the methods of the natural sciences provide the most reliable guide to understanding the material world, and the current evidence from science indicates that the diversity of life is best explained as a result of an evolutionary process. Thus we affirm that evolution is a means by which God providentially achieves His purposes. 1
Here, “evolution” should be understood in its broadest sense as the naturalistic explanation for the origin of the universe as well as all life in it. Thus, despite Dr. Collins’ claim to believe the Bible to be the “inspired and authoritative Word of God”, in the arena of the “natural sciences” he clearly subordinates divine revelation to human reason.
Similarly, Dr. Hugh Ross is an astronomer who founded the Reasons to Believe ministry for the purpose of “integrating science and faith”. His statement of faith published on the ministry’s web site affirms:
We believe the Bible (the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments) is the Word of God, written. As a “God-breathed” revelation, it is thus verbally inspired and completely without error (historically, scientifically, morally, and spiritually) in its original writings… The Bible is therefore our supreme and final authority in all matters that it addresses. 2
And yet, based on the conclusions of modern science Dr. Ross and his ministry teach that: 1) God used the Big Bang to create the universe, 2) the days of the Creation Week are really millions/billions of years in duration, 3) a pre-Fall race of hominids existed before Adam, and 4) that the Flood of Noah was not global in extent. The Bible-believer must ask, “How are these beliefs consistent with his assertion that the Bible is the supreme and final authority in all matters that it addresses?” This is equivocation in the extreme, which is the only way that religious humanism can maintain its façade of an authoritative Bible.
Religious humanism, therefore, is not only bad science, it’s also bad religion (Prov14:12; Jn17:17). Religious humanism is a more subtle enemy of the Bible-believing Christian than secular humanism, but for that reason it’s probably the more dangerous one.
Endnotes:
- BioLogos Foundation Website, http://biologos.org/about, accessed October 19, 2011. ↩︎
- Reasons to Believe Website, http://www.reasons.org/about-us/our-beliefs, accessed October 19, 2011. ↩︎
About The Author
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As Bible-believing Christians, our bedrock foundation is that God’s divine revelation, His perfect, pure, and inerrant word, stands infinitely higher than the flawed, ever-changing reasoning of autonomous man. Bro. Hayes has provided believers with a tremendous, discerning resource in “Humanism and Truth”. Thank you!