Posted on 09/18/2007 10:23:38 AM PDT by spirited irish
The worldview of Evolutionary Humanism (or scientific naturalism) has two central components. The first is metaphysical; the second epistemological. Metaphysically, Evolutionary Humanism infers that the natural or material realm either self-created or has existed eternally. This doctrine is known as scientism. In addition, this worldview teaches us to believe that everything---including life and intelligence---came about through unseen (immaterial) processes of motion called evolution. Epistemologically, it demands that sensory knowledge (empiricism) be the only authoritative source of knowledge.
In the words of the Humanist Manifesto II: “Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis…science is the best method for determining this knowledge…” This principle is a universal limitation on knowledge requiring that knowledge be restricted to only that which can be empirically determined (sensed). In short, if it can’t be touched, seen under a microscope, measured, counted, weighed, or otherwise sensed, then it doesn’t exist, meaning that the immaterial or metaphysical realm does not exist.
This worldview’s two-part metaphysical creation story revolves around the atomic theory of matter and evolutionary theory. According to the former, all chemical change is the result of the rearrangement of unseen (immaterial) tiny parts---protons, neutrons, and electrons. By authority of the latter (evolutionary theory), we are expected to believe that random mutations or incremental changes (rearrangement of tiny unseen parts) over time are mostly responsible for causing macro-changes. In other words, this unseen process of change miraculously caused bacteria to change into fish which in turn changed into lizards which then changed into proto-apes which then changed into man. Through this same process, dinosaurs changed into hummingbirds, chickadees, flamingos, and such. Because all life forms emerged out of the same primordial bacterial stew, bacteria are the common ancestors of all life forms. By extension, all life forms share the same genetic material; therefore the idea of species distinctions is a fiction. This makes man a Heinz 57 mutt whose material brain possesses genetic material from bacteria, lizards, fish, and apes. In the words of John Darnton in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005:
“We are all of us, dogs and barnacles, pigeons and crabgrass…equally remarkable and equally dispensable.” (Quote from, “Human Beings Deserve the Right to Life Because They Are Human,” Wesley J. Smith, Life News, 8/27/07)
With profound faith in the humanist worldview, evolutionists and fellow travelers view themselves as thoroughly ‘modern’ ‘progressive’ and ‘intellectually enlightened.’ From their lofty perches they look down their noses in utter contempt and disdain upon the unwashed masses (defenders of God and America’s founding Judao-Christian worldview) for continuing to believe the unenlightened view that man is created in God’s image rather than accepting the ‘enlightened’ superstition that mans’ common ancestor is mindless bacteria. Believing they have arisen to spectacular intellectual heights, in reality the so-called ‘enlightened ones’ have fallen into the abyss of the most absurdly stupid and dangerously delusional belief system the world has yet witnessed. How can this be? Briefly, the entirety of their worldview (including its evolutionary creation story) is not itself scientifically testable. By failing to meet its own empirical requirements, it refutes itself. Yes, here we come to now understand why the emperor has no clothes.
This embarrassingly insurmountable intellectual problem occurs precisely because of humanism’s anti-God and metaphysical bias. Rejecting God and metaphysics is destructive of reason and science. In short, it’s not just anti-intellectual it’s also an insanity inducing deception.
Metaphysics
The word metaphysics is based on the compound of two Greek words meta (after, beyond) and physika (physics, nature). It literally means beyond the physical or knowledge that exists beyond the physical world of sensory perception. Metaphysics is the study of the ultimate nature of reality, that is to say, it encompasses both natural and supernatural realms in its investigation of the origin, structure, and nature of what is real.
Greg L. Bahnsen tells us that worldviews are networks of metaphysical presuppositions and principles “regarding reality (metaphysics), knowing (epistemology), and conduct (ethics) in terms of which every element of human experience is related and interpreted.”(Pushing the Antithesis, p. 280)
Presuppositions provide both foundation and framework for worldviews. Crucial to the process of reason, presuppositions provide starting points and standards of authority by which truth and error are evaluated, the real and unreal can be identified, and the possible and impossible are determined. For instance, “In the beginning, Nothing---then a spark--- then Matter…” (spontaneous generation or something from nothing) is the foundational metaphysical presupposition by which evolutionary humanists determined through a peculiar reasoning process that only the sensory realm exists.
Universals are truths of an immaterial or non-sensory nature and are crucial to the understanding, organizing, and interpreting of particular truths within the context of the material world. Universals are metaphysical constructs such as concepts (i.e., inalienable rights), standards, principles (i.e., our founding principles), moral values, laws, and categorical statements. The Laws of Logic, so vitally important to the practice of science, reason, and coherent communication, are universals.
Metaphysical presuppositions and universals can’t be seen under a microscope, held in the hand, measured, weighed, or otherwise detected by the five senses yet they do exist. They exist within the supernatural or immaterial realm and are absolutely essential to the process of reason and the practice of science.
Additionally, scientists constantly deal with the unseen or immaterial realm in the form of subatomic particles, gravity, numbers, natural laws, laws of thought, causation, and memory (vital to scientific experimentation).
The whole theory of evolution, which drives and authenticates modern materialist presuppositions and assumptions, is a non-sensory (metaphysical) theoretical projection back into time. Yet despite that no scientist was there to witness it nor has anyone ever observed the creation of other universes or witnessed one kind of life change into a different kind, the theory of evolution is nevertheless proclaimed by many to be an empirically determined fact.
In principle, evolutionary humanists cannot even count, weigh, or measure (all of which are essential to the practice of science) because these acts involve an immaterial concept of law (a universal). Additionally, the postulation of universal order, a view necessary to making counting, weighing, and measuring intelligible, contradicts the materialist (metaphysical) proposition that the universe is a random or chance material realm. Furthermore, counting, weighing, and measuring call for immaterial entities which are uniform, orderly, and predictable. This once again contradicts the materialist proposition of continuous and random change over time.
Within the anti-intellectual straitjacket of the sensory realm, reason and science are destroyed. Empirical learning, reason, and intellectual inquiry are impossible without metaphysical presuppositions, universals, and assumptions.
As it is, evolutionary humanists do in fact reason, theorize, propose, presuppose, assume, hypothesize, count, weigh, measure, and practice science. They simply cannot give a philosophically principled account of how they “know” to do these things. All of which highlights the glaring dialectical tensions (i.e., hypocrisy, revisionism, deceptions, self-delusions, outright lying, mysticism) which of necessity are endemic to the humanist worldview.
Yet despite its colossal intellectual and moral failings, Evolutionary Humanism is now the dominant worldview in our secularized schools, colleges, universities, and government at every level. Additionally, it has made inroads into Christian schools, seminaries, and churches.
Regarding education in America, its’ direction can be seen as a downward spiral from Jonathan Edwards (1750) and the Christian influence, down to Horace Mann (1842) and the Unitarian influence, and yet further down to John Dewey (1933) and the evolutionary humanist take-over of our education institutions.
In the words of Charles F. Potter, signatory of the first Humanist Manifesto, 1933,
“Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every public school is a school of humanism. What can the theistic Sunday school, 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 teachings?”
Today, our classrooms are but transmission belts for the weird moral fetishes of humanist indoctrination; a mind-befogging and immorality-inducing process that leads to the adoption of atheism, materialism, politically correct ‘new morality,’ inhumanity, evolutionism, Cultural Marxism, New World Orderism, multiculturalism, sexual egalitarianism (hedonism/androgyny), cruelty, and other destructive anti-traditional views. As a consequence, Americans (and Christians) are walking away from America’s founding worldview---as well as God and their inalienable rights---due to the teaching of Evolutionary Humanism. After being befuddled, filled with unreasoning hatred and paranoid fear of God, Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, and traditional-values America, Americans’ become their own worst enemies. For as they mindlessly destroy traditional-values America in pursuit of universal peace, tolerance, diversity, and inclusion, they are unknowingly setting the stage for their own eventual enslavement and perhaps even death, as Evolutionary Humanism has a proven track-record of mass murder (genocide).
A brief comparison of our founding worldview versus Evolutionary Humanism’s three major permutations---Secular Humanism, Leninism-Marxism, and Post Modernism, will show us why this is occurring.
America’s Founding Judao-Christian Worldview 1. Theology: biblical theism 2. Philosophy: God/supernaturalism/metaphysics 3. Ethics: moral absolutes/Ten Commandments/sanctity of life 4. Biology: Creation 5. Psychology: mind/body dualism 6. Sociology: traditional family, church, state 7. Law: Divine/Natural Law 8. Politics: inalienable rights, individual freedom, justice, order 9. Economics: stewardship of property (private property), free markets
Secular Humanism, Marxism-Leninism, Post Modernism 1. Theology: atheism, atheism, atheism 2. Philosophy: naturalism, dialectical materialism, anti-realism 3. Ethics: moral relativism, proletariat morality, moral and cultural relativism 4. Biology: neo-Darwinism, punctuated evolution, punctuated evolution 5. Psychology: monism (self-actualization), monism (behaviorism), monism (socially constructed selves) 6. Sociology: alternative lifestyles and State control of children, classless society and State control of children, sexual egalitarianism and State control of children 7. Law: positive law, proletariat law, critical legal studies 8. Politics: secular world government, communist world government, secular world government 9. Economics: state control of resources, scientific socialism, state control of resources
As can be seen by this brief comparison, Evolutionary Humanism is not just the antithesis of our founding worldview it is completely destructive of it as well.
Observes William F. Buckley on the disintegration of traditional-values America,
“The most influential educators of our time---John Dewey, William Kilpatrick, George Counts, Harold Rugg, and the lot---are out to build a New Social Order. There is not enough room…for…religion (Christianity). It clearly won’t do…to foster within some schools a respect for an absolute, intractable God, a divine intelligence who is utterly unconcerned with other people’s versions of truth…It won’t do to tolerate a competitor for the allegiance of man. The State prefers a secure monopoly for itself…Religion (Christianity), then, must go…The fight is being won. Academic freedom is entrenched. Religion (Christianity) is outlawed in public schools. The New Social Order is larruping along.” (“Let Us Talk of Many Things,” p. 9-10)
Copyright Linda Kimball 2007 PatriotsandLiberty http://patriotsandliberty.com/
Linda is the author of numerous published articles and essays on culture, politics, and worldview. Her writings are published both nationally and internationally. Linda is a member of MoveOff.net/
Sources: Pushing the Antithesis, Greg L. Bahnsen Understanding the Times, David Noebel What is Scientific Naturalism? J.P. Moreland
Related Articles Can America Survive Evolutionary Humanism? Cultural Marxism
The bottom line for me isn’t anything that Darwin said or did; it’s what scientific atheists and materialists have done with Darwin in recent times. This is a fairly recent phenomenon. As recently as 1960, “many people, including many scientists, have traditionally reconciled God with evolution by considering evolution to be a process created by God.”
...
Manzi writes:
Lately, this common-sense position has been attacked as happy-talk by scientific atheists who condescendingly argue that anyone who really understands evolution realizes that it implies atheism....
Scientific atheists put forward two propositions as logically deducible from science: that evolution eliminates the need for a Creator, and that evolution has no ultimate purpose or goal. That known science implies either conclusion is a myth, both in the sense of being objectively false, and also in the sense of being a story that a community of believers tells itself in order to provide meaning and coherence to the lives of its members. Beneath a veneer of hyper-rationality, scientific atheists often see themselves in a deeply romantic light: as uniquely courageous in the face of unpleasant facts, and as bringers-of-fire to unenlightened humanity.
***Good writing. “Beneath a veneer of hyper-rationality...
based upon the lack of rational thinking I have witnessed on this thread alone, that veneer is pretty thin.
OK, I'll leave out Adams and state with confidence that there is more historical evidence to support the historical Jesus than there is to support the existance of Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, or Cleopatra. By a magnitude of 100.
It’s from Robert Burns. He said to his business partner, “All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.”
Robert Burns=Robert Owen.
whoops.
Please note that the original contention was that there was more evidence for Jesus claiming to be equal with God (which led to His crucifixion, the best attested event in all history as far as I can tell) than for John Adams being the 2nd president. It wasn’t originally over the whole historicity of the life of Jesus versus the whole historicity of John Adams, which is a straw argument that has been added. For that, my position has been labeled “psychotic”.
God's light shines on everyone, not just the "select" or "elect." Not only was Light the Word of the Beginning, but many physicists have concluded that light (i.e., the photon) plays the key, critical role in the facilitation of biological processes. See Niels Bohr's essay, "Light and Life" (1933). (I can send you a copy if you like.)
Truly science illuminates our world -- which (as you know) I consider to be a revelation of God -- i.e., the "Book of Creation" -- that we are bid to explore and understand. Science is an amazingly powerful tool in that endeavor.... Oddly enough, science itself arguably is a "creature" of the Judeo-Christian world view...as such, truly a gift of God.
Thank you for your kindness in sending me that lovely excerpt, js1138!
As it should be.
Perhaps you would care to enlighten the forum as to the best attested event in all of history? Let’s make it classical history, basically before Gutenberg, so that any existing manuscripts are hand written. Other than that, as I stated, I’m done with you.
No, let's leave it where it started, with the history of John Adams.
Robert Owen, as in the great 19th-century American socialist experimenter/organizer? That guy???
There have been a number of socialist experiments in America -- the Oneida Colony, Fruitlands, Owen's in Ohio (IIRC). They all went bust.... LOLOL!!!!
I remember the “except thee and me” quote, but didn’t know the source. It’s a nice joke,
Plymouth Colony. The second governor's diary is a good read.
The first governor died with about half the rest of the colony over the first winter.
Do you think John Adams’s presidency is the best attested event in all of history? Probably not. But it shows you can’t answer a straight question.
Just for the sake of clarity, and perhaps future reference, you are in agreement with the statements made by AG in her post 234, correct?
The comparison was between Jesus and John Adams. Nothing more.
It was asserted that the life of Jesus is better documented than the life of John Asams.
It was asserted that the life of Jesus is better documented than the life of John Asams.
***Wrong. That was asserted by YOU. Read it again, Mr. quick-to-call “psychotic”.
Do you admit the historicity that Jesus was put to death for claiming equality with God?
I neither admit nor deny it. It’s a claim along with lots of other claims.
224 posted on 09/25/2007 12:00:39 AM EDT by js1138
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 223 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
To: js1138
It is a claim with as much historical evidence as John Adams being 2nd president of the US, Columbus sailing the ocean in 1492, and the existence of Julius Caesar.
The fact that you can say such a thing shows that you have a distorted view of history and the science behind it. You are making an irrational statement.
225 posted on 09/25/2007 12:06:16 AM EDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
To: joebuck
Please note that the original contention was that there was more evidence for Jesus claiming to be equal with God (which led to His crucifixion, the best attested event in all history as far as I can tell) than for John Adams being the 2nd president. It wasn’t originally over the whole historicity of the life of Jesus versus the whole historicity of John Adams, which is a straw argument that has been added. For that, my position has been labeled “psychotic”.
285 posted on 09/26/2007 4:35:22 PM EDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
The historical evidence for the Crucifixion and the reasons for the Crucifixion are the same as the sources for the life of Jesus.
Yes. Learn to read.
Claim = : historicity that Jesus was put to death for claiming equality with God, claim with as much historical evidence as John Adams being 2nd president of the US
Claim NOT = : life of Jesus is better documented than the life of John Asams
Like I said, I’m done with you. You can take the best attested event in all of history and call it repeatedly “pscychotic” to rely upon its historicity. You have no regard for science nor truth, and yet you browbeat Freepers who don’t uphold science in your eyes. Go peddle your worthless philosophical garbage elsewhere. Let the lurkers decide if they want your ugly counterfeit sophism.
It makes no difference to me which snippet of Jesus' life you select. Saying it is better attested than the presidency of John Adams is simply nuts.
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