Saturday, May 14, 2005
Secular Humanism;
The Rebellion of the American Colonies was based on 18th century ideas. The core of this movement was Rousseau’s age of reason. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/dixont/timeline.htm America was NOT founded as a Christian Nation but more Deists European Deists were Anthony Collins (1676-1729), Matthew Tindal (1657-1733). J.J. Rousseau (1712-1778) and F.M.A. de Voltaire (1694-1778) were its leaders in France.
Many of the leaders of the French and American revolutions followed this belief system, including John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison Thomas Paine, and George Washington. Deists played a major role in creating the principle of separation of church and state, and the religious freedom clauses of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.
The 19th century added two basic elements of social logic. First was dialectic materialism which was the basis of sociology and public economy. The core concept is that people are reasonable and take care of their own interests. Ideology follows interests. Second, the “economic man” is also full of hidden and powerful passions. Social Darwinism argues that successful individuals and groups will over time increase in power while less functional ideas will fade and weaken. Better run and better made Japanese cars will replace GM products as an example of the survival of the fittest.
Secular scientific humanism has advantages over superstition and the fundamentalist or tribal societies. The argument of Christian Nation types are historically wrong and should be at a disadvantage to secular humanism. One is the love of the imagined past the other of the rational future. Science will conquest over “faith” based systems. The founding fathers did not want to take on organized religion and their wisdom is still a lesson. It is just that secular humanism should stand up for itself, reason, logic, scientific method, technology, and not be so silent in the face of superstition and belief in magic.
The Rebellion of the American Colonies was based on 18th century ideas. The core of this movement was Rousseau’s age of reason. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/dixont/timeline.htm America was NOT founded as a Christian Nation but more Deists European Deists were Anthony Collins (1676-1729), Matthew Tindal (1657-1733). J.J. Rousseau (1712-1778) and F.M.A. de Voltaire (1694-1778) were its leaders in France.
Many of the leaders of the French and American revolutions followed this belief system, including John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison Thomas Paine, and George Washington. Deists played a major role in creating the principle of separation of church and state, and the religious freedom clauses of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.
The 19th century added two basic elements of social logic. First was dialectic materialism which was the basis of sociology and public economy. The core concept is that people are reasonable and take care of their own interests. Ideology follows interests. Second, the “economic man” is also full of hidden and powerful passions. Social Darwinism argues that successful individuals and groups will over time increase in power while less functional ideas will fade and weaken. Better run and better made Japanese cars will replace GM products as an example of the survival of the fittest.
Secular scientific humanism has advantages over superstition and the fundamentalist or tribal societies. The argument of Christian Nation types are historically wrong and should be at a disadvantage to secular humanism. One is the love of the imagined past the other of the rational future. Science will conquest over “faith” based systems. The founding fathers did not want to take on organized religion and their wisdom is still a lesson. It is just that secular humanism should stand up for itself, reason, logic, scientific method, technology, and not be so silent in the face of superstition and belief in magic.
