Ed Magner - August 1, 2008 

      Posted 11-22-2008

While browsing around the other day, I came across a very interesting site called, Humanism for Schools.

Here’s what one site had to say:  For humanists, one of the most important attributes of humans is the ability which we have to ask questions about the world around us and investigate those questions.  

This attribute is important for humanists for two reasons:  it means that we can find out about and understand the world around us, and it means we can use the answers to our questions to change the world around us.  Humanists do not look to any god or sacred texts for guidance in life, but look rather to their own human ability to ask questions, explore the world, reflect on their own experience, and find answers.   

Humanists say that curiosity, and the intelligence, imagination, creativity, and empathy with which they seek answers to questions, demands responsibility:  They can change the world they live in and man is responsible for his or her own actions.   

I’m wondering why public schools do not consider this type of curriculum a religion. They don’t worship the Christian God, but they do worship themselves as God. The American Humanist Association was founded in Illinois as a tax-exempt organization for educational and religious purposes. The Bylaws of the American Humanist Association, amended in 1968, “reflect that the Association has a legal status as a ‘religious organization.’” 

Humanists say that our moral values have developed along with our evolution as social animals.  Our values are based on our common human need to live together harmoniously in groups.  We need the kind of rules and behavior that enable social groups to work well. 

I was under the impression that evolution depended on the survival of the fittest, and if so, that doesn’t seem to fit into the humanist living harmoniously together ideology.  

Humanists argue that our shared human nature and needs explain the considerable agreement among religions and societies about what is ethical.  They believe that the Golden Rule is so widespread across the world and in most religions and philosophies because it is based on our common humanity - we all want to be treated well and we all need to live together harmoniously.  

Ben Rast writes,  “Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism.  What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” 

 “Christianity is kept out of the schools due to a faulty understanding of the First Amendment’s “Establishment Clause.”  The separationist claim that any religion taught or tolerated within the school (except for historic instruction) constitutes an intolerable government endorsement of religion.  They keep teachers from teaching anything about creation – or even pointing out the problems with evolution – for the same misguided reason: no government endorsement of religion or religious doctrine.  As creationism is a belief held by Christians, Jews, and other religions, it must not be allowed to be taught or tolerated within public schools.  But there is a double standard now.  By doing what they have done, they have created a public school system that actually teaches the doctrines of one religion, (perhaps even a state endorsed religion) to the exclusion of all others.  This indeed is a violation of the First Amendment.  One single religion is preached in public schools, and no other religion may compete with it within those walls.  I refer to the religion of humanism.”   

Well, there are tons of written material on the pro and con of humanism and Christianity, but the problem boils down to this. We as Christians did not react to the biased court rulings and the state controlled education system. 

We as Christians remained in our cocoons and failed to fight the good fight for Christ. We can take our children to church on Sunday for one or two hours, but for the rest of the week they are bombarded with humanistic and evolutionist teachings. Especially in higher education. Many Professors and Doctors ridicule creationist and believers as uneducated.   Very few universities and colleges embrace intelligent design. 

Perhaps it has gone too far now, and we can only hope to send our children to private or church sponsored schools, or even home school them. Humanism has degraded the nation’s education system. Drop outs are at an all time high.  Police have to patrol the hallways to insure children have no weapons. Lockers are searched randomly by drug dogs.  

But what the schools produce empty out into the streets. Gang violence is at a critical point in law enforcement. Drugs are a common commodity on the streets. Anyone can buy any type of weapon from the trunk of a car. Identity theft is the number one felony in the world. Our media has the morality of a sewer, and our children are having sex as young as 10 and 11 years of age. If these are good examples of the humanist philosophy that humans evolve harmoniously together in groups and their self-values produce good for our society, then God help us. I mean just that. God help us.