Transcript Document

Secular
Humanism
Marxism Leninism
Cosmic
Humanism
Biblical
Christianity
Source
Humanist
Manifesto
I & II
Writings of
Marx & Lenin
Writings of
Ferguson,
Spangler, etc.
Bible
Theology
Atheism
Atheism
Pantheism
Theism
Philosophy
Naturalism
Dialectical
Materialsim
Non-Naturalism
Supernaturalism
Ethics
Ethical
Relativism
Proletariat
Morality
Ethical
Relativism
Ethical Absolutes
Biology
Darwinian
Evolution
Darwinian/
Punctuated
Evolution
Darwinian/
Punctuated
Evolution
Creation
Psychology
Sociology
Secular
Humanism
Marxism Leninism
Cosmic
Humanism
Monistic SelfActualization
Monistic
Pavlovian
Behaviorism
Collective
Consciousness
Non-traditional,
Abolition of
World State,
Home, Church,
Ethical Society
& State
Biblical
Christianity
Dualism
Non-traditional
Home, State, &
Home, Church,
Church
& State
Law
Positive Law
Positive, or
Proletariat Law
Self-Law
Biblical/Natural
Law
Politics
World
Government
(Globalism)
New World
Order
(Globalism)
New Age Order
Justice,
Freedom, Order
Secular
Humanism
Marxism Leninism
Cosmic
Humanism
Biblical
Christianity
Universal
Enlightened
Production
Stewardship of
Property
Evolutionary
Godhood
Historical
Resurrection
Economics
Socialism
Socialism/
Communism
History
Historical
Evolution
Historical
Materialism
Secular Humanism Ethics: Ethical Relativism
Since the Humanist rejects the existence of God, human
beings get to decide on standards and values. Humanists
believe that science, reason, and historical experience are
sufficient guides for figuring out what is right or wrong in any
situation. These standards will not always be the same, as each
person has a different background and reasoning. Therefore,
the standards and values – ethics – are relative. The Humanist
Manifesto II states, "We affirm that moral values derive their
source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and
situational, needing not theological or ideological sanction.
Ethics stems from human need and interest."
Marxism-Leninism Ethics: Proletariat Morality
Marxist ethics don't come from a sense of absolute rules, but
from the cause of communism. Whatever advances the
proletariat (the working class) is morally good. Whatever
advances the cause of communism is morally good, whatever
hinders its advance in social and human evolution is morally
evil. The killing fields of Cambodia, the Soviet Union and the
Ukraine, as well as the mass murders in China were the
practical results of proletariat, or class morality.
Cosmic Humanism Ethics: Ethical Relativism
Since each individual is divine, they need only get in touch
with the universal god-consciousness within to act morally.
According to this standard, virtually every mindset and action
is justified – with the notable exception of adhering to a
worldview, which believes in moral absolutes (such a view
supposedly stunts a person's ethical progress).
Biblical Christianity Ethics: Ethical Absolutes
God's moral nature is absolute and unchanging. God always
hates evil and loves good. The Bible is of supreme importance
because it tells us the difference between the two, providing a
framework on which a completely unambiguous ethics must
be built. According to Biblical Christianity, ethical relativism
leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Christian ethics is
inseparable from theology for the simple reason that Christian
ethics is grounded in the character of God. Rather than
believing in some ethical scheme bound to society's everchanging whims, the Christian answers to a specific moral
order revealed to man through both general revelation and the
special revelation of the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ.
•Jesus Christ is the "Light"
•Genesis 2:9; John 1:9; John 3:19,20
•Genesis 2:9 - And the LORD God made all kinds of trees
grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and
good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
•John 1:9 - The true light that gives light to every man was
coming into the world.
•John 3:19,20 - This is the verdict: Light has come into the
world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their
deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and
will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed.
Outside the home's front door lay a bare, blood-soaked mattress and box spring.
Josh Booth looks at the living room containing the mattress, right, where his brother
was killed.
The house inside was infested with fleas, the plumbing was backed up, much of the
furniture was broken and the stench of cat urine filled the air.
Matthew Booth, 34, was lying face-up on the mattress when he was shot in the head
early July 30. His 13-year-old daughter told investigators she used a 12-gauge shotgun
to shoot him in the face, a crime that her attorney said was precipitated by years of
sexual abuse.
The Associated Press on Sunday toured the Elizabeth Township home, located about 20
miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and found revolting conditions.
"I've been in crack houses that have been nicer," said Eddie Rose, a private investigator
hired by the girl's attorney, Patrick Nightingale.
Prosecutors initially charged the girl as an adult with criminal homicide. But after
visiting the filthy home Friday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala
Jr. decried the deplorable conditions and said the girl would be tried as a juvenile.
The girl was sent to a psychiatric clinic Friday and, on Monday, officials there
determined she should remain for up to another 20 days.
A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday to get a judge to approve transferring the case to
juvenile court. The Associated Press does not identify possible victims of sexual abuse.
Matthew Booth was cremated in a private ceremony, his brother Josh Booth told the AP
after visiting the house Sunday.
The 13-year-old girl's mother, Michelle Fazek, does not have custody of the teen or her
14-year-old brother, but does have custody of a 12-year-old daughter she had with
Matthew Booth. Fazek and Booth were never married.
Nightingale told a judge last week that his client "specifically requested her mother not
be involved at this point. There are serious issues of alienation."
The brother said he was on the second floor at the time his father was shot and came
running downstairs when he heard it.
The girl tossed about some furniture after her father's slaying to make it look like a
burglary took place, Nightingale said. But, he said, she lived in the squalor, among the
fleas and animal feces.
There was barely enough room to walk through the living room. A beat-up couch,
where the girl slept, stood propped up against one corner, its back ripped and its
cushions scattered on the floor.
An empty alcohol bottle, beer cans, soda cans, books, a stuffed animal, papers and
crumpled-up pages from pornographic magazines cluttered the floor.
A coffee maker and another small appliance sat on the kitchen floor amid dirt, debris
and animal feces. A green cat litter box lay on its side. Authorities said animal welfare
officers took away an array of animals -- including dogs, cats and rabbits -- from the
house last week.
Several trash-filled plastic grocery bags leaned against the fridge, while larger trash
bags brimming with empty beer cans took up space under the kitchen sink. The only
items in the freezer were a bottle of vodka, a plastic bag and a small red container.
In one room upstairs was another bare mattress and box spring. Stuffed animals, plastic
toys, clothing, and soda cans and bottles were strewn across the floor, along with animal
feces.
Several drawings took up one wall. On a piece of paper stuck to the wall was D.H.
Lawrence's poem, "Self Pity," which begins, "I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for
itself." Written in marker on the wall was "To live is to suffer" and a line from a Tupac
Shakur song, "My only fear of death is reincarnation."
A second room upstairs was so cluttered that walking more than a yard inside was
impossible. A kitchen sink, a vacuum cleaner, an artificial Christmas tree, broken
furniture, boxes and other items filled the floor.
After going through the house with an AP reporter and photographer, Rose and Al
Hanasik, who works with Rose, spent several minutes furiously smacking the fleas off
their clothing.
Josh Booth said he hadn't seen his brother in about six years.
But he and his wife saw the girl and her brother when the children visited their
grandparents. "They would say they were fine," Kim Booth said. "They never gave any
inclination something was going on."
The couple said they were unaware of any sexual abuse.
"If the family was aware anything like this was going on, we would have done
something," Kim Booth said. "This terrible tragedy happened because nobody did
anything."
Secular Humanism Biology: Darwinian Evolution
Naturalistic evolution says that life just happened. It just
appeared from a primordial ooze and through natural selection
(from beneficial mutations) changed into animals, plants and
man. Without naturalistic evolution, there is no Secular
Humanism. Anything else would demand a Creator, which
would mean that man is not the source of all things. Humanists
believe that science has proven the theory of evolution to the
extent that it is no longer a theory but a scientific fact.
According to this "fact," man is the most highly evolved of all
creatures, and is now responsible for directing and aiding the
evolutionary process.
Marxism-Leninism Biology: Darwinian/Punctuated
Evolution
Marxism-Leninism also depends on the theories of evolution
and spontaneous generation. Karl Marx made it very clear that
the origin of the species contained the scientific basis for his
views on the class struggle. However, Marxist dialectical
materialism called for something more than just the gradual
progress of natural selection. The dialectic needs a theory with
clashes and leaps. This is satisfied with punctuated
equilibrium, which says that each species stayed the same for
long periods of time (equilibrium) and evolution happened
through occasional ruptures or leaps (punctuations) from one
species to another.
Cosmic Humanism Biology: Darwinian/Punctuated
Evolution
The New Age movement sees mankind as evolving from
disharmony to harmony, until evolution has guided men and
women out of the material into becoming completely spiritual
beings. Evolution is central to Cosmic Humanist doctrine,
because it ensures mankind's eventual progression to godhood.
Biblical Christianity Biology: Creation
Only the creationist perspective can adequately account for
design in nature, since it postulates a Designer, a law-giver
and an orderly cause, while the materialist can only posit
chance. Christians believe the creationist model as described
in scripture better fits the facts of science than the evolutionary
model. Christianity trusts the authority of Genesis and
declarations concerning creation, such as Mark 10:6 and
Colossians 1:16. Science and Christianity are demonstrated to
be compatible and to declare in unison that God "created all
things" (Ephesians 3:9). The Bible gives us information about
God and His universe; science gives us information about
God's universe.
•Jesus Christ is the "Life."
•Genesis 1:17; John 1:4; John 11:25; Colossians 1:16
Mark 10:6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them
male and female.'
Col 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for
him.
John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the
life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
Biblical References:
•Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in
our likeness …
•Psalm 139:13,16 For you created my inmost being; you knit
me together in my mother's womb. … your eyes saw my
unformed body.
•Deut 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god
besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded
and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.
•James 2:6 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without deeds is dead.
Current Bioethics Issues:
•Abortion
•Reproductive technology
•Euthanasia
•Stem cells
•Cloning
Key Question
•Who and what are we?
•From a strictly scientific point of view, there is no doubt
that individual human life begins at conception and does
not end until natural death. At the moment of conception,
when sperm and ovum cease to exist as individual
entities, a new being with its own genetic code comes
into existence. All that is needed for its development is
food, water, air, and an environment conducive to its
survival.
•If human persons ought not to be either subjects of
research or killed without justification, and if the fetus
from conception is a human person, then embryo
experimentation, abortion, and cloning are prima facie
morally wrong.
•Human beings and human persons?
•Many bioethical decisions were made without
addressing this issue.
When does an unborn become a human person?
•Brain waves are detected (40 to 43 days)
•A being who can engage in cognitive acts such as
sophisticated communication, consciousness, solving
complex problems, self-motivated activity and having a
self-concept (sometimes after birth).
•The fetus is sentient, the ability to feel and sense as a
conscious being (middle to end of 2nd trimester).
Needing certain functions to qualify as human person:
•What about a human being is asleep, unconscious, and
temporarily comatose
Arguments for ‘no morally significant difference between
the embryo you once were and the adult you are today.’
(SLED)
•Size: True, embryos are smaller than newborns and
adults, but why is that relevant? Do we really want to say
that large people are more valuable than small ones?
Men are generally larger than women, but that doesn’t
mean they deserve more rights. Size doesn’t equal
value.
•Level of development: True, embryos and fetuses are
less developed than you and I. But again, why is this
relevant? Four year-old children are less developed than
14 year-old ones. Should older children have more right
to life than their younger siblings?
Arguments for ‘no morally significant difference between
the embryo you once were and the adult you are today.’
(SLED)
•Environment: Where you are has no bearing on who
you are. Does your value change when you cross the
street or roll over in bed? If not, how can a journey of
eight inches down the birth-canal suddenly change the
essential nature of the unborn from non-human to
human? If the unborn are not already valuable human
beings, merely changing their location can’t make them
so.
•Degree of Dependency: If viability bestows human
value, then all those who depend on insulin or kidney
medication are not valuable and we may kill them.
Conjoined twins who share blood type and bodily
systems also have no right to life.
Abortion – any premature expulsion of a human fetus
•Approximately 93% of all induced abortions are done
for elective, non-medical reasons…”
Methods of abortion
•First trimester:
•Suction Aspiration
•Dilation and Curettage
•RU 486
•Methotrexate
•Second and third trimesters
•Dilation and Evacuation
•Instillation Methods
•Partial-Birth Abortion
•Hysterotomy
Arguments against abortion
•Personhood
•A woman has the right to make a decision about her
own body.
•Biologically, the human zygote is a separate
organism from the time of conception— genetically
unique and distinct from its parents, developing
according to its own genetic ‘blueprint.’
•Although the unborn entity is attached to its mother,
it is not part of her. To say that the unborn entity is
part of its mother is to claim that the mother
possesses four legs, two heads, two noses, (no one's
right to personal autonomy is so strong that it permits
the arbitrary execution of others.)
Arguments against abortion (continued)
•If abortion is outlawed, then mothers will be forced to
care for unwanted or handicapped children; otherwise
the children will have to suffer.
•Abortion is the worst sort of child abuse imaginable,
•Human value is not based on whether someone
wants or cares for them.
•What is to stop the murder of handicapped people?
•This shows our selfishness in not wanting to care for
the defenseless. A damaged human is not a
nonhuman.
Arguments against abortion (continued)
•If abortion is outlawed, we will once again find women
dying from self-induced abortions or ‘back-alley
butchers.’”
•No statistic to support this.
•Before abortion was legalized, Dr. Mary Calderone,
president of Planned Parenthood, states that 90% of
all illegal abortions were done by physicians.
Arguments against abortion (continued)
Natural vs. Legal rights
•Natural rights are those rights that you have simply
because you are human. They are grounded in your
human nature and you have them from the moment you
begin to exist. Government does not grant these basic
rights. Rather, government’s role is to protect them.
•Legal (or positive) rights are those rights you can only
acquire through accomplishment or maturity. These
rights originate from the government and include the
right to vote at your eighteenth birthday and a right to
drive on your sixteenth.
Questions on Stem Cells
•What are human embryonic stem cells and how are
they obtained?
•How are adult stem cells different from embryonic stem
cells?
•Is it ethical to obtain stem cells from human fetuses and
umbilical cords?
•Have scientists been successful in using non-embryonic
stem cells to treat disease?
•Have scientists been successful in using embryonic
stem cells to treat disease?
Questions on Stem Cells
•What is the relationship between embryonic stem cell
research and "therapeutic" cloning?
•Why should we value the human embryo?
•Shouldn't it be ethical to allow the destruction of a few
embryos in order to help the millions of people who
suffer from diseases such as Parkinson's and heart
disease?
•What does the law say and can I have a voice?
Euthanasia
Voluntary, Active Euthanasia
•Mercy killing or mercy dying
•Taking a human life is not the same as allowing nature
to take its course by allowing a terminal patient to die.
•Modern medical technology has significantly blurred the
line between hastening death and allowing nature to
take its course.
•Active euthanasia eliminates the possibility for recovery,
while passively ceasing extraordinary means may not.
Euthanasia
Involuntary, Active Euthanasia
•Involuntary euthanasia requires a second party who
makes decisions about whether active measures should
be taken to end a life.
Physician-Assisted Suicide
•Hippocratic Oath: "I will neither give a deadly drug to
anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to
that effect."
Psychology
[Greek: psyche (soul) + logos (word)]: The study of the
soul, mind, and spirit.
Secular Humanism Psychology: Monistic SelfActualization
This psychology focuses on man's inherent goodness
and predicts that every individual can achieve mental
health through the fulfillment of physical or material
needs. This is self-actualization. Monism means that
man is only body, that no soul, mind, or conscience
exist. If man is only matter, then his actions are simply
the result of mechanical impulses. This notion, called
behaviorism, is inconsistent because it directly
contradicts the Humanist's atheistic theology and
naturalistic philosophy, which claim that man, is the
master of his fate.
Marxism-Leninism Psychology: Monistic Pavlovian
Behaviorism
Behaviorism says that everything a person does is the
result of two purely material reasons: the individual's
physical makeup and the influence of the environment
on a person's nervous system. The brain is just a
collection of nerves and blood vessels and tissues that
have been programmed to react a certain way. The
programming is done by a person's environment: his
education, surroundings, family, background, etc. Just
like Pavlov conditioned his dogs to salivate when they
heard a bell, humans are conditioned to feel patriotic
when they see a flag, or to rescue children from
drowning. This conclusion follows logically from their
materialist philosophy (only matter exists).
Cosmic Humanism Psychology: Collective
Consciousness
Society and the environment, according to the New Age
movement, stifle our knowledge of the god within. Thus,
the aim of psychology should be to cause each
individual to realize that they are fundamentally perfect
and therefore should trust their intuitive urges. According
to the New Age doctrine, a man's true self would never
urge him to contribute in any way to dis-unity.
Biblical Christianity Psychology: Dualism
Only Christianity, with its emphasis on the spiritual and
its understanding of man's fallen condition (Romans 1-2)
can truly address the innermost concerns of the
individual. Christian psychology helps people get in
touch with their real selves only because it allows them
to recognize their own sinfulness and consequently their
need for a Savior. Our greatest need is not self-esteem;
rather, it is the realization that we are sinners in rebellion
against God. "Christianity starts off," says Kilpatrick, "by
saying that we're not OK the way we are.
Biblical Christianity Psychology: Dualism
There is something wrong with us — a twist in our
natures. And the twist is not removed by liking yourself,
but by starting to live in Christ." Only after receiving
Christ as Savior can people begin to understand their
value as creations in God's image and lead triumphant
lives. Rather than demanding that the individual ignore
his conscience, the Christian calls for him to recognize
that his guilt is real, then to face his guilt and repent.
Biblical Christianity teaches moral responsibility,
whereas Humanism and Marxism blame individual moral
failings on society or the environment.
3 Major categories of Modern Psychology
•Self-esteem
•Individual psychotherapy and counseling
•Group psychotherapy
Self-esteem
•Self-esteem, self-image, self-acceptance, self-worth,
self-trust, self-love
•Is there any relation between self-esteem and success
of a person?
•1989 Mathematical skills study:
•American ranked lowest
•Korean ranked highest
•American ranked highest in self-judged skill
•Korean ranked lowest in self-judged skill
•Commonality - Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin
Self-esteem
•How is self-esteem different than ‘Principle of Design –
Self-acceptance’?
•Self-esteem
•Without God
•See yourself from own
perspective – worth
from accomplishment,
other opinions, physical
traits
•Feel good about
ourselves
•Self-acceptance
•With God
•See yourself from God
perspective – worth
from God, not changed
with accomplishment,
etc
•Boast in the Lord
Self-esteem
•What are the consequences of a ‘self-esteem’
psychology?
•Education - “Don’t grade them, don’t label them.”
•Teacher – care with no discipline
•Pursuit of happiness – pursuit of holiness
•Excuse evil
•Extreme self-love
•Come as you are, we don’t want to change you
•“You are the most important person in the whole world.”
•Avoid discussion of religion
•Extreme tolerance
Individual Psychotherapy
•Successful therapists are described as “empathic,”
“supportive,” “caring,” and “patient.”
•Cognitive approaches are those that emphasize the control of
thoughts, emotions, and behavior through rational strategies.
•Works best for specific and clearly bounded problems.
•May focus too much on past hurt  irresponsibility
•May focus too much as victim
•Does not include forgiveness
•Does not include reconciliation
Group Psychotherapy
•Alcoholics, Overeaters, …
•Usually treat symptom as disease
•Need moral choice and commitment to change. If a disease,
one cannot do that.
•Many steps have strong religious and moral components:
•believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity
•Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.”
•Forgiveness is often omitted
Beyond Psychotherapy
•Forgiveness – Principle of suffering
•Repentance – Principle of Responsibility - Clear Conscience
•A fifty-minute hour once a week, years after the events,
cannot cure the past hurt
•Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a story to be lived.
Secular Humanism Sociology: Non-traditional, World
State, Ethical Society
Humanists use sociology to explain the huge gulf between
their view that man is capable of perfection and the real world
of evil. They say civilization and culture shape the individual.
Thus, man is evil primarily because his cultural and social
environment are evil, not through any fault of his own –
society and culture have influenced man's actions and have
therefore stifled this inherent goodness. One of the most
stifling of human institutions is the family. Government
sponsored education provides the most desirable method for
abolishing outdated social institutions and ensuring the
development of a free society.
Marxism-Leninism Sociology: Abolition of home, Church,
and State
The Marxist is especially anxious to usher in a communist
society because only then will man achieve a truly moral
social consciousness. (Communism is the goal of socialism.)
When he has achieved this consciousness, society will be so
radically changed that the individual will be influenced to act
responsibly at all times. Since every man can then be trusted to
act responsibly and rightly, established institutions such as the
church or family will be unnecessary. In fact these would only
hinder man's development or lead him astray.
Cosmic Humanism Sociology: Non-traditional home,
Church, and State
To explain the all-too-obvious evil done by man, the Cosmic
Humanist resorts to blaming traditional society – especially
the central principles of Western Civilization. Various New
Age leaders blame different aspects: technology, maledominant norms (including those of the traditional family), the
free-enterprise system, a central government, and dogmatic
monotheistic religions. This results in a rebellion against all
traditional values without examining their reason for
existence.
Biblical Christianity Sociology: home, State, and Church
Christian sociology is based on the proposition that both the
individual and the social order are important to God, mankind
and society. Christ died and rose again for each person as an
individual; God also ordained social institutions to teach love,
respect, discipline, work and community; family, church and
state are the three most important of these. Christian sociology
focuses both on society as a means for human cooperation in
accordance with God's will, and on the individual as a vital
part of various social institutions in society.
Biblical references
Deut 21:1-7 If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land
the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not
known who killed him, your elders and judges shall go out and
measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns.
Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer
that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and
lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted
and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they
are to break the heifer's neck. The priests, the sons of Levi,
shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them
to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the
LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault. Then all
the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands
over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they
shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our
eyes see it done.
Biblical references
Jos 8:33 All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders,
officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of
the covenant of the LORD, facing those who carried it--the
priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of
Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as
Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded
when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.
Biblical references
1 Cor 6:1-4 If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he
take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the
saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to
judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge
angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if
you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even
men of little account in the church!
Biblical references
Eph 4:11-12 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to
be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so
that the body of Christ may be built up
1 Tim 3:5 If anyone does not know how to manage his own
family, how can he take care of God's church?
1 Tim 3:15 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought
to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church
of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
What are today’s attacks on Biblical Christian Sociology
•Classless society
•Non-traditional family
•Polymorphous sexualities
•Radical feminism