Geisler’s Is Man the Measure?

Is Man the Measure? Contemporary Humanism (1983)  Author: Norman L. Geisler

CH. 1  Evolutionary Humanism    In Julian Huxley’s foundational book  Religion Without Revelation(1957), he builds upon the evolutionary biology of Charles Darwin, the evolutionary philosophy of Herbert Spencer, and the evolutionary ethics of his grandfather, biologist Thomas Huxley, aka, “Darwin’s bulldog”.  Based on Julian’s address at the 1959 Chicago World’s Fair, he could be described as a committed atheist.  (His grandfather Thomas coined the term, agnostic.)      Julian was admittedly manic depressive and his wife, with which they shared an open marriage, thought him bipolar.  (Julian and his brother Trevenen had nervous breakdowns.  His brother committed suicide.)  Julian Huxley (1887-1975)developed a complete evolutionary humanism (God, human origins, religion, values, science, arts) to include his hopes for the human race.
Huxley believed the scientific method provides a satisfactory foundation for beliefs.  Science would frame any future religion for humanity.  Darwin’s Theory of Evolution would be the foundation of this scientific religion.  Anything that aides the evolutionary process, such as “self-actualization,” is good (Ex. Nazi super-man, or eugenics); and what hinders it (belief in supernatural God of the Bible) is bad.  Julian Huxley was the first Director of UNESCO and not surprisingly, the first President of the British Humanist Association.

CH. 2  Behavioral Humanism    Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) conjectured that man is behaviorally determined. (Behavior (1958) by atheist J.B. Watson.)  Skinner believed all organisms/all that exists are purely physical, the result of physical causes. (This radical materialism shapes all of Skinner’s thoughts.)
Skinner holds that the origin of man can be accounted for by the theory of evolution.  Skinner’s attitude required no “creative mind”(God) behind the evolutionary process, nor in-built design within it.  The origin of man was a “happy” accident of matter, plus motion, plus time, plus chance, plus natural selection.  For Skinner, and atheists in general,   man is merely a highly evolved animal (without a soul, or mind) that is solely the product of physical causes.
(Note: Skinner held truth was relative, not absolute. Skinner adopts a Pragmatic view of truth, accepting what works.)  Skinner’s person is controlled by his genetic and environmental histories.  This rules out man as a creative agent with freedom of choice.  This creates a kind of biological determinism.  To change man’s behavior, one must change man’s environment since it is external causes that are responsible for his behavior.

CH. 3  The Existential Humanism of French Satanist Jean Paul Sarte (1905-1980); Author: Being and Nothingness(1956)
Founder of vacuous effete notion of Existentialism (phenomenology).  As an atheist, Sarte believed there was no God and that man was alone (in a vast field of wheat…perhaps Cream of Wheat…who knows?  No one.  Nothing… forever.)  Man is under no divine law, conveniently freeing him up to become/evolve into his own “god.”  Sarte’s attempt to eliminate God is highly flawed (as is most of his thinking.)  Sarte had distinct communist tendencies in his personal life and his philosophy.  He regularly relied of the thinking of others, such as Germans Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche.   He led a thoroughly pathetic existence.  He did however, experience a “deathbed” conversion to the Christian Faith!

CH. 4  The Pragmatic Humanism of John Dewey (1859-1952)  Dewey, “the Father of American Education,” espoused a pragmatic form of humanism.  The atheist Dewey rejected a belief in God using “advancements in Science as an excuse.  Another excuse for Dewey was that he believed the reality of evil could not be squared with the concept of a personal, good, and all-powerful God.  Like all humanists, he was a committed Darwinist.  Dewey believed man is a result of naturalistic evolutionary processes.
Dewey thoroughly rejected the supernatural, especially Biblical Christianity, as a hindrance to societal progress, or evolution.  Like the Hindu of his day, or the New Ager of today, Dewey believed “genuine divinity is found within each individual.” (Why settle for less than personal godhood?)  Mind and life should be understood in biological terms, not in theological terms.
As a pragmatist, Dewey believes that something is true if it works.  Stalinist programs of starvation and Siberian gulags would be some of his favorite things.  Dewey manifested a distinctly authoritarian personality.  An advocate of total government, he had an insatiable blood lust, and was an open admirer of the brutal policies of Mao Tse Tung as well. 
This kind of flawed humanistic reasoning allowed Dewey to make man the measure.  This idea jived well with his natural communistic “It takes a village” thinking.  Dewey was a great admirer of the murderous pograms that “wreaked havoc” on Soviet peasants, he was also a great admirer of documented Satanist Karl Marx. (Vile/Kindred spirits perhaps?)

CH. 5  Marxist Humanism    Karl Marx 1818-1883 (German-Jewish)  Marx adopted Feuerbach’s atheism and attitudes. Essence of Christianity (1841).  A mooching Marx teamed up with his life-long benefactor, Friedrich Engels, to produce The Communist Manifesto(1848).  Marx believed the “criticism of religion” to be the foundation of all criticism and that God was a projection of human imagination.  Like Feuerbach, Marx held a materialistic view of man’s origin and nature.  Marx was also a disciple of Darwin whose Origin of Species was published in 1859.  (Marx admired Darwin and dedicated Das Kapital to him.)  Marx can be classified as a dialectical materialist following the tradition of the Hegelian dialectic of THESIS, ANTITHESIS, and SYNTHESIS.  (Marx was seeking the ultimate synthesis of Communism spouting the mantra, “From each according to their ability to each according to their need.”)  For Marx, whatever promoted Communism was good and whatever hindered Communism was evil.
Marx was a vile human being who refused to work a job.  He produced very little income for his family to the point of squalor.  His personal hygiene was noxious, odious, and horrendous.  As a singularly cruel and deceitful person, he drove members of his family to suicide thru torturous mental cruelty and abuse.  Marx was completely demonic.  Not even Aleister Crowley was so thoroughly evil and debauched.  (see Paul Kengor’s The Devil and Karl Marx (2020)
After destroying his family, a pathetic Marx died unloved and alone with few people attending his funeral.

CH. 6  Ayn Rand’s Objectivism as Egocentric Humanism    While Ayn Rand’s Philosophy of Objectivism is rational and brilliant, it is motivated by pure self-interest and is entirely pagan.  Norm Geisler considers Rand an atheistic humanist.  Due to her intellectual arrogance and depraved heart, Rand never gave Christianity a fair hearing.  I would not critique Rand’s Objectivism since it is rationally brilliant and logically sound.  I will point out that Creator God has provided a superior TRUTH as the logos Jesus Christ; a God-man whom Erwin Lutzer referred to as “the logos, or logic made man.”  Only adherence to the Christian faith and the demonstrated word of God (Bible) can provide the optimal approach to what we should believe is true and how we should live our lives.  The logic laden, evidence based arguments produced by Christian apologetics, Geisler, J.P. Moreland, W.L. Craig,  confirm my opinion is valid.

CH. 7  The views of Communist academic Corliss Lamont (see Wiki) are articulated in his Philosophy of Humanism (1949) and represent the influential idea of Cultural Humanism where Man Is the Measure, i.e., man centered philosophy.  Lamont(1902-95) was a roommate of Julian Huxley at Oxford and John Dewey associate at Columbia. (“Where else?”)
Lamont writes, “Humanism believes in a naturalistic attitude toward the universe that considers all forms of the supernatural as myth.”  Humanism believes that “man is an evolutionary product of nature.”  Humanism asserts that human beings can solve their own problems through reliance on reason and scientific method. (Notice how humanism assigns man the task of being his own savior and redeemer.)  Humanists ground their ethics or morality in earthly experience.  Humanists claim to be working for the social welfare of others, the collective.  Humanism seeks “social progress” through the use of central planning and the establishment of a New World Order.  (This attempt to end nationalism and establish a globalist “utopia” will undoubtedly have the opposite effect.  To achieve this globalist utopia, total government will have to be employed, and individual rights must be “suppressed” for the collective to succeed.  Also, moralistic “Christian-like” restraints on artists and writers will have to be removed.)  Total world planning for the “welfare” of all mankind is the greatest good for the collective.  Unfortunately for the individual, his rights will have to be sacrificed.  The generally incompetent United Nations “could lay the foundation for an integrated world economy and political federation.  (Sounds like a description of Constance Cumbey’s End of Times New World Order and the rise of the Antichrist, aka, Lord Maitreya.)  In addition, collective security will have to be achieved thru the total disarmament of the world’s population in the name of “universal peace.” (It is always a good time to re-read George Orwell’s 1984.)
One of the highest priorities of cultural humanism (Marxism as well) is educational indoctrination.  The philosophy of godless secular humanism must be instilled in young people, and the public at large, so no competing rational evidence based ideologies like Christianity can undermine the “religion of the State.”
Humanism is anti-God, claiming that man evolved from matter, that man has no immortal soul, and that he is a finite, temporal being.  Or as Harvard atheist scientist Richard Lewontin stated, “A divine being must not be allowed to set foot in the door. (sort of a camel’s nose under the tent analogy)  For the atheist materialist Lamont, the humanistic utopia (“Age of Aquarius”?) will be achieved through the social implementation of human reason and the scientific method.