Humanism is the solution, not the problem

Submitted by Kevin Bjornson (United States), Jul 29, 2011 at 18:46

If "humanism" were really the zeitgeist of Europe today, we would see a flourishing of European art, science, technology, business, and culture generally. That is not the case.

Rather what we see, is moral relativism and nihilistic secularism.

Moral relativism is the logical and only possible consequence of mystically-based moral codes. If reason does not provide a guide, faith fills the vacuum. There is no rational basis for saying one type of faith is better than another. The only question is, the degree of faith and that is highly positively correlated with aggression.

"Secularism" is negative, in that it pretends to oppose mysticism.
However doing that is impossible, because mysticism employs undefinable terms. Rather we should offer positive humanism, that is, human achievement and reason.

Anders was very clear, he favors Christian Crusaders as role models to emulate in today's context. However the historical Crusaders were Christian but not humanistic. They sacked Constantinople, making possible the later conquest by Islam. They also often murdered non-Christians including Jews, without regard to their guilt or innocence. Again, a faith-based political program of force-initiation.

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