Chapter 2: Secular Humanism – The Secular Search
As we return to Abdu Murray's book Grand Central Question, we pick up with
chapter 2 which begins Part One of the book; Secular Humanism or the Gospel: Which Provides Us with Intrinsic Value and
Objective Purpose? Within this chapter Murray further determines the what of secular humanism. He does this
by first defining the following terms:
Secular
– an adjective used to describe concepts that are “neutral to different
religious or non-religious beliefs…devoid of any religious or supernatural
considerations while at the same time not being hostile to them or favoring
antireligious ideas” (page 46). He provides the government of the United States
as an example. Thus religious believers can be secularists and espouse
secularism.
Secularizationism
– This form of secularism seeks to keep religion and religious expressions
private through societal and cultural constraints enforced by the state.
Murray contends,
while conceding that not all secular humanists are seeking to completely remove
private or public religious expression, that the secular humanism of today
leans more toward secularizationism as seen by the works of men like Richard
Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens and the
sway that they hold over large groups of people. Thus Murray uses this form of
secular humanism to answer the Grand Central Question of human dignity and
purpose. However, he also looks to the writings of men like Voltaire, David
Hume and Stephen Hawking and the manifestos of organizations such as the
American and British Humanist Association to gather a clear understanding of
the position of secular humanism.
Secular
humanism finds its roots in the empiricism of the Enlightenment which held that
all things worth believing must be rationally based and testable. Hume took
this a step further by contending that all propositions which cannot be
empirically verified must be abandoned. Murray points to the effort of Harris
to scientifically test the foundations of morality in The Moral Landscape and Hawking claiming “Philosophy is dead” in The Grand Design as evidence that Humean
empiricism is held by leading secular humanists. Additionally the Humanist Manifesto II states essentially
that we are our bodies and we do not survive death. Through these writings
Murray shows that we can conclude that secular humanism is committed to
scientism, the idea that science is the only way humans can know truth, and
naturalism, the idea that all of reality is contained within the natural world.
In this
context of scientism and naturalism, secular humanism answers the Grand Central
Question by adamantly asserting the meaning, value and purpose of humanity. It
appeals to human reason and shared values and experience as the source. The Humanist Manifesto II states that
“people should work together to improve the quality of life for all” (page 57).
There is no need for God; humanity is the supreme being and therefore its own
savior. In the next chapter, Murray will look at the justification, or the why, secular humanism provides for these
assertions.
Stand firm in Christ,
Chase
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