Jesus Among Secular GodsSample

Humanism

Relativism naturally leads to humanism­­­, which means that human beings are the ultimate measure of truth. Relativism claims that we can create our own truth, morality, and meaning on an individual level. Humanism, at least in its atheistic form, claims that humanity can create its own value, meaning, and purpose on a societal level. It is up to humanity to save itself.

Early humanists were Christians motivated by their belief that God had bestowed value on human beings, but today’s atheistic humanism holds to an elevated sense of human value and ethics while rejecting God. A serious problem emerges with this approach. Any plausible ethical theory acknowledges the equal value of every person. But for every person to be equally valuable, there has to be something that is equally true of every person. 

Humanism can be thought of as a cut-flower worldview. Once a flower is cut off from the source of its nourishment, it is only a matter of time before it dies. Likewise, humanism bases itself on human value but has cut itself off from the source of human value. 

Humanism sees self-reliance as an ultimate virtue. The Bible depicts self-reliance as the original sin. The first humans could not resist the temptation to “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). Humanism denies the reality of living in a Genesis 3 world that has been broken by the fall. 

In sharp contrast to ultimately relying on ourselves, Christianity teaches that the only way for us to truly live is to remove ourselves from the equation. The funeral at which real life begins for each of us is the burying of one’s own pride and self-sufficiency. Self-reliance or God-reliance is the simple life-defining choice that every heart has to make.