Two of the central fundamental beliefs of all humanistic worldviews (i.e. — socialism, progressivism, marxism, fascism, corportism, etc.) are the inherent goodness of man and the inevitability of progress. When humanists control the levers of power they trust in their own goodness to help along, through social engineering, the inevitable progress to which they are so thoroughly committed. Humanists pursue their belief that given clever social engineering, society and people can be perfected. This pursuit, through legislation is supposedly the path to progress.
All of this also explain why there is an immediate reflex, among the practitioners of humanism, to instantly blame those who resist the humanist vision of the perfectibility of man when the lack of perfection appears in a cataclysmic fashion in society. Humanists reason that the reason or cause for the lack of perfection, as seen in whatever cataclysmic event is being analyzed, must be because non-humanists get in the way of humanism (progressive) vision.
Humanism, believing that their presuppositions could never be in error, always see the explanation for social failure in their opponents, even when the social failure is clearly the consequence of pursuing their humanist social engineering dreams. And quite in keeping with this mental disease, the answer that humanists always answer for the failures of their humanism is more humanism. So, for example, when after decades of humanist social engineering in government schools we have seen disastrous results after disastrous results, the progressive concludes the failure in government schools is due to some remnant of Christianity that has not yet been cleansed from the template being used in the government schools. The new social engineering plan developed to address government school failures includes another large dose of the humanism that has created the problem to begin with.
Another tendency of Humanism is to attribute all behavior that is deemed as wicked or unacceptable to environmental causes. Since Humanism believes that all that is, is matter in motion, there can be no explanation for ill behavior except for environment. Because Humanism (i.e. — Liberals, progressives, socialists, etc.) believe this their every answer to every problem is to improve the environment that was responsible for the unacceptable behavior. We are seeing all of this coming to light in the Tuscon shootings. As one watches the news and reads the analysis one is brought face to face with the constant insistence that this shooting was caused by the negative environment. I’ve read very little analysis that is concerned with holding the shooter responsible and no analysis that attributes the cause, not to environment, but to sin. Instead what I am reading almost everywhere are explanations anchored in non Christian humanist reasoning where the view of the shooter is one where he is totally conditioned by his environment. A Christian looks at this and says, “Loughner is responsible for his sin.” A pagan looks at this and says, “Loughner’s actions have to be explained by his environment. The reasoning goes on to insist that if we change the environment, we no longer will have this kind of behavior. It is Humanism all the way down.
Bret, very well said, thank you. Humanism is fallen man, in all his various social and political manifestations. The first plank of humanism was established at the beginning in the garden by Satan’s lie, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Fallen man in heartily embracing his “Godhood” determines his own condition as good, his law (of good and evil) good, and therefore his actions inevitably good, which can only lead to “progress,” no matter what he does. Any resistance must be considered evil.
Bret, come on now, you know Sarah Palin made him do it. Gray