The Secular Worldview with Dr. Jeff Myer

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Dr. Jeff Myers: The question that the Christian Worldview answers is: Is God’s story, as told in the Bible, the actual story of the world? 

The Secular Humanist Worldview asks the question: Is God relevant to the way we live?

The Secular Worldview with Dr. Jeff MyersSo, let’s say that God does exist. Does it even matter? In order to really grasp this, we need to understand the Secular Worldview and what it actually teaches. Perhaps an easy way to concisely sum up this worldview is to consider this quote from Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears A Who”:

Sour Kangaroo: “I say, if you can’t see it, hear it, or feel it, it doesn’t exist!

William Ernest Henley had the philosophical statement in his poem Invictus that is more commonly associated with the Secular Worldview:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

It matters not how straight the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

It was a very popular poem, up until the 1990’s, when a man named Timothy McVeigh drove a moving truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and blew that truck up as a bomb. 171 people, including three unborn children, died in that explosion. Several years later, Timothy McVeigh, having been convicted by a jury for committing these murders, was sentenced to death. And, when he was asked for his final statement, he simply handed the warden a piece of paper with the poem Invictus written upon it.

In other words: Not even taking away my body can stop me from ruling over you.

So, now, when people who understand the story of Timothy McVeigh hear the poem Invictus, it sends chills up their spines as it conjures up the reality of American Terrorism.

Yet, a lot of people today still embrace Secular Humanism as their default position. They say, “Look, if you say that Christianity is true, then you are making a claim. I am making no claims at all. Simply what exists exists. That’s the way it is. There is no supernatural explanation for it.” In fact, some people go to great pains to look at scientific ideas to demonstrate what they attest to be true.

There was some neurological research done on some Tibetan Monks and Catholic Nuns. It showed that when these people were involved in meditation, the parietal lobe of the brain – the part of the brain that is aware of space and time, goes dim. Therefore, they hold that the brain creates the idea of God. This research became so popular that TIME Magazine ran a cover article on it. But, even TIME, at the very end of the article, gave an insightful observation: 

“At the end of the day, what can never be proven by research is whether the brain creates God or God created the brain. In the end, it is a matter of faith.”

This quote reveals that even Secular Humanists are religious people who have faith.

One of these such people is Jocque Berlinerblau, a law professor at Georgetown University, who said:

“The secularish are here-and-now people. They live for this world, not for the next.”

What he is not telling you is that they do not believe that there is a next world; or they believe that whatever the next world contains,  whatever God’s nature and character may be, that is irrelevant to how we live our lives today. Yet still, Secularists come up with a story of the world to justify their beliefs. When I took various history and social sciences courses at the university, I learned this story. It was never put into one, simple paragraph, but every single supposed “fact” within the story was given to me as an historical fact while I was studying at the university.

Secular Story of the World

The followers of Jesus were evil liars whose goal was to establish a macho, anti-woman cult. The good people of Rome tried to stop them but the wicked Emperor Constantine managed to establish Christianity as Rome’s official religion anyway. Once in power, Christians intentionally undermined Rome’s strength until this once-great civilization collapsed. The church blindly pressed forward in its obsession with control, plunging Europe into the dark ages. It took a few hundred years, but Europe was eventually rescued by scientists and philosophers who bravely risked their lives to challenge the church’s teaching that the earth was flat and the center of the universe. Occasionally Christians gained power long enough to burn tens of thousands of witches, massacre millions of natives, and launch cruel crusades against innocent, civilized Muslims. Fortunately, due to the brilliance of those who rejected the church’s teachings, the enlightenment saw the triumph of science and reason over religion. However, we must not let down our guard, because greedy, ignorant Christians resent the progress made by clever, reasonable Secularists and they will do everything they can to manipulate their way into power to prevent decent folk from having a good time and living their lives in freedom.

That’s the story that is told. Every supposed “fact” in that paragraph was delivered to me, in one form or another, during my university education. But, there’s the tricky part: There isn’t one single fact in that entire statement. When you break it down, every single idea begins to fall apart. One expert on this is Alvin Schmidt who is a professor who wrote on the History of Christianity, as well as Rodney Stark, both of whom have been published stating that this version of the story of the world simply isn’t true. In fact, if it were true, then it would justify a certain way to treat Christians. So, people who say, “We are going to live and let live” are often the people who are least likely to actually live and let live. Instead, they believe that all people need to conform to certain standards that they believe the Story of History requires us to do.

In fact, you can begin to see the religious context of some of their ideas come into play. Consider this letter, written by an attendee of a recent Macklemore concert:

An Open Letter to the Church from My Generation, Dannika Nash

“Augustana’s gym was filled to the ceiling with 5,000 people, mostly aged 18-25, and decked out in thrift store gear (American flag bro-tanks, neon Nikes, MC Hammer pants. My cowboy boyfriend wore cowboy boots… not ironically…). The arena was brimming with excitement and adrenaline during every song, but when he started to play ‘Same Love’, the place about collapsed… During the song, almost every person at the concert had their hands up and their eyes closed… it reminded me of church.”

Wait a second… she’s saying that people went to a concert to engage in religious corporate worship. Yes, there is a worldview being proposed, even at a Macklemore concert during his song about same-sex relationships, which inspires a form of worship.

Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, said that the kind of ideas now enshrined in law – unless we do something to change them – will lead to the persecution of Christians. He specifically referred to a conversation he had with one of the Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai Feldblum. Jim brought up the conflicts that Biblical Christianity has with the Commissioner’s stated views regarding human sexuality. Commissioner Feldblum replied:

“Well, if I wanted to get married to my partner and a Christian person was working at the county courthouse, if they refused to do it – even politely and had somebody else come over to do it – she shouldn’t work or he shouldn’t work in the county courthouse. What about a doctor that wouldn’t do in vitro fertilization for a lesbian couple? Well, they should never be licensed by the state because they would be violating my rights.”

This is one of the three people in charge of equal employment opportunity at the Federal level in the United States government. When Jim asked about Religious Freedom, Feldblum replied, “My sexual rights trump your religious freedom.” That would be news to the Founding Fathers. John Adams called Religious Freedom the First Freedom. Because, if you don’t have that, none of the other freedoms can stand. But now, we are in a situation where the idea of Religious Freedom can be violated because it runs in conflict with the ideas of sexual freedom of the people in power. In this situation, you can see the fruit of the Secular Humanism Worldview actually born out. It is clear that the worldview is not actually “Live and Let Live”, but actually “My Way or the Highway”. Everyone must live according to the Secular worldview belonging to those in power. Ultimately, the people who say “There is no God. We must make up the rules for ourselves”, historically end up becoming dictators who force their will on everybody else. It is actually a form of Theocracy. It’s the only form of Theocracy that we have had in the United States of America, and it’s rooted in a Secular religion, not a Christian one.

So, what are the Secular Humanist beliefs?  The first is: “God belief” is irrelevant. Paul Kurtz was a leader in what was known as the American Humanist Association and the Secular Humanist Movement. By the way, the word Secular means “to an age”. In other words, what is important is someone’s temporal life, without an eternal perspective. Therefore a Secular Humanist focuses on “the best interest of human beings”. Who decides what is in the best interest of human beings, though?  We’ll get to that in a minute. But, first, “God belief” is irrelevant. Paul Kurtz addressed this in the Humanist Manifesto 2:

“No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.” 

Notice that he does not deny the existence of a deity. He is saying that no deity will save us.

The second belief of Secular Humanists is: Humans are good by nature.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow discussed this in his  theory of self-actualization, which basically said that if your basic needs for food are met, then you can concern yourself with your need for shelter. Once your needs for shelter are met, then you can concern yourself with your needs for companionship. And once those needs are met, then you can ultimately become a self-actualized person when all of your needs are met, and you can begin giving back to society. This is a secular form of “salvation”. 

“As far as I know we just don’t have any intrinsic instincts for evil.” (Abraham Maslow)

Paul Kurtz actually saw humans as “perfectible”. But, what did he mean by “perfectible”? Who gets to decide what “perfect” is?

The third belief of Secular Humanists is: Society and its institutions are responsible for the evil we do. You see, if human beings aren’t intrinsically evil, how could we end up doing evil things? The blame must be put on society and its institutions. Carl Rogers put it this way:

“I see members of the human species, like members of other species, as essentially constructive in their fundamental nature, but damaged by their experience.”

We are simply too focused on our own needs when we run into conflict with other people’s needs and we end up damaging one another. Our experiences, in turn, damage us, making us damaged people who, in turn, damage others… this is the Secular version of sin.

So, to review, three core Secular Humanist Beliefs are:

      • “God belief” is irrelevant.
      • Humans are good by nature.
      • Society and its institutions are responsible for the evil we do.

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