Convicting Those Who Contradict

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Convicting Those Who Contradict

• Humanism, Relativism, and Pluralism

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Review

• Humanism is a religion
• Main tenets of humanism
• Atheism
• Evolution
• Relativism
• Autonomy of man
• These ideas are laid out in The Humanist
  Manifestos, I, II, and III

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Review - Atheism and Evolution

• From The Humanist Manifestos
• Religious humanists regard the universe as
  self-existing and not created
• As in 1933, humanists still believe that
  traditional theism, especially faith in the
  prayer-hearing God, assumed to live and care for
  persons, to hear and understand their prayers,
  and to be able to do something about them, is an
  unproved and outmoded faith.
• As nontheists, we begin with humans not God,
  nature not deity.
• Humans are an integral part of nature, the
  result of unguided evolutionary change.

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Truth Is Relative

• Tolerant of everything but theism!
• From The Humanist Manifesto I
• Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe
  depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any
  supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human
  values.
• From The Humanist Manifesto II
• We affirm that moral values derive their source
  from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and
  situational needing no theological or ideological
  sanction.
• From the Humanist Manifesto III
• Ethical values are derived from human need and
  interest as tested by experience

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Humanist Ethics (Morality)

• From II
• In the area of sexuality, we believe that
  intolerant attitudes, often cultivated by
  orthodox religions and puritanical cultures,
  unduly repress sexual conduct. The right to birth
  control, abortion, and divorce should be
  recognized.
• The many varieties of sexual exploration should
  not in themselves be considered evil.
• a civilized society should be a tolerant one.
• Moral education for children and adults is an
  important way of developing awareness and sexual
  maturity.
• Civil liberty also includes a recognition of an
  individual's right to die with dignity,
  euthanasia, and the right to suicide.

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Man Is Autonomous

• From The Humanist Manifesto I
• Religious Humanism considers the complete
  realization of human personality to be the end of
  man's life and seeks its development and
  fulfillment in the here and now.
• From The Humanist Manifesto II
• We believe in maximum individual autonomy
  consonant with social responsibility.
• There is no credible evidence that life survives
  the death of the body
• From The Humanist Manifesto III
• Life's fulfillment emerges from individual
  participation in the service of humane ideals.

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Key Humanists in History

• How did humans come to be?
• Charles Darwin gave a humanist answer to this
  question Evolution
• How have nations risen and fallen without God?
• Karl Marx gave a humanist answer to this question
  Marxism and class struggles
• How do we explain the obvious conflict in humans
  between the physical and spiritual?
• Sigmund Freud gave a humanist answer to this
  question with the conscious and unconscious

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Humanisms Goals

• From The Humanist Manifesto I
• Religious humanism maintains that all
  associations and institutions exist for the
  fulfillment of human life. The intelligent
  evaluation, transformation, control, and
  direction of such associations and institutions
  with a view to the enhancement of human life is
  the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly
  religious institutions, their ritualistic forms,
  ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities
  must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience
  allows, in order to function effectively in the
  modern world. (emphasis mine, edp)

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Humanisms Goals

• In other words, humanism wants to infiltrate and
  change all religious institutions to be more
  humanist
• Do not be deceived, YOU and I have been affected
  by humanism
• Humanisms tentacles have reached to practically
  every facet of American society
• Entertainment
• Government
• Education (higher and lower!!!)
• Religion

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Humanisms Cause and Effects

• From II
• Free thought, atheism, agnosticism, skepticism,
  deism, rationalism, ethical culture, and liberal
  religion all claim to be heir to the humanist
  tradition. Humanism traces its roots from ancient
  China, classical Greece and Rome, through the
  Renaissance and the Enlightenment, to the
  scientific revolution of the modern world.

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Converting the Humanist

• Many humanists will fall into the category
  described in Romans 118-32 2 Tim. 31-9 and 2
  Thes. 29-12
• Do not judge, sow the seed!
• Here are some approaches to the plausibility of
  God (From Piloting the Strait by Dave Miller)
• Cosmological proof
• Teleological proof (design demands designer)
• Moral proof
• Evidence for the inspiration of the Bible

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Cosmological Proof

• The existence of the universe is itself proof of
  a creator
• The universe is not eternal and is degrading
• The Big Bang does not account for matter being
  created from nothing
• There had to have been an uncaused First Cause

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Teleological Proof

• Intelligent planning is behind all ordered design
• Nature is meticulously designed, and that
  requires a Designer, an Intelligent Planner
• Psalm 191 and Rom. 120 capture this thought
• Consider the design of the human body

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Morality Proof

• That there exist such things as ethics and
  morality suggest the existence of God
• That human life is intrinsically valuable is
  evidence of the Creator
• Moral decline historically precedes societal fall
• The existence of a conscience suggests a creator.

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The Bible Is Proof

• The inerrancy of the Bible it is free from
  contradictions
• The historical and geographical accuracy
• One popular example is that of the Hittites
• The predictive prophecies
• Christ was to appear during the Roman Empire
  (Dan. 244)
• The rejection and crucifixion are prophesied in
  amazing detail (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53)
• The unity of the Bible

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Converting the Humanist

• More practical for us is to work to convert the
  deceived humanist
• How do we deal with one who does not know how
  much humanism has influenced him?
• Educate them on the origins of the tolerant,
  permissive attitude of our society
• Then, help them to see the fact that absolute
  truth does exist

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Relativism

• The only certainty is that there is no certainty
• Keep an open mind
• Dont be judgmental
• Avoid labeling anyone as wrong
• Im okay, youre okay
• All of these attitudes foster blind tolerance for
  beliefs and practices that are not Biblical

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How Has Humanism Affected Religion in America?

• The humanists have worked their way into the
  faculty of most every college and university in
  America
• This has trickled into the religious seminaries
• Examples of their influence on religion
• Explaining away Bible miracles
• Attacking the idea of specific verbal inspiration
  of the Bible (the new hermeneutic)
• Lengthening the days of Genesis 1
• Separating fellowship from doctrinal correctness

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Relativism

• Relativism is a self defeating philosophy! It is
  inherently contradictory!
• Does relativism apply to natural law? Are there
  absolute truths in nature?
• Relativism completely undermines all morality
• If everyone is right, then no one is!
• Where does relativism lead? (Gen. 199)

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Bible Answers to Relativism

• John 832, You shall know the truth
• Matt. 44, by every word
• Matt. 913 - Hos. 66
• John 717
• John 645
• 2 Tim. 215
• 2 Thes. 521
• 2 Cor. 42
• Acts 2030
• 2 Pet. 316