A very brief overview of atheism, humanism and communism for a class on World Religion

1. World Religions and Missions
A very brief overview of
Humanism, Communism and
Atheism
Robert D. Patton
Missionary to Suriname,
South America

2. Humanism
 Atheism – actual belief that no god
exists
 Deism – he is there but distant and
irrelevant
 Humanism – man is god
 Evolution
 Communism
 Some religions claim to be humanistic

3. Atheism
 In fact, it is impossible philosophically,
because you would need all knowledge
to be sure that God was nowhere to be
found – negative
 The Bible says that the fool says – No
God… Psalm 14:1. And Romans 1:25
ff speaks further

4. Atheism
 All people worship something
 Some worship the God who created the
universe
 Some worship all sorts of gods of their own
minds
 Some worship the creation instead of the
creator

5. Evolution
 Is not scientific – because it attempts to
explain origins, which are not
approachable by scientific methods,
which require both observation and
controlled experimentation
 It is totally against all the laws of
probability

6. The laws of probability
 This is the premise of “intelligent design” – which
is not really a religion, and some who believe in it
are not necessarily Christian, but it is scientific
 The chance of life arising spontaneously is like
throwing a six on dice 5 million times in a row, or
like a wind going through a junkyard and a 747
coming together on the other side

7. More science shows us more
complexity
 The single cell is incredibly complex
 Without a metabolic motor, it cannot
work, but how does it develop the
metabolic motor in the first place?
 DNA is necessary for life, but comes
only from life
 Pasteur – only life begets life…

8. What about the bones?
 The so-called evolutionary groups such
as horses do not exist in real life
 The evidence of prehistoric man in
evolution is not proven – either false or
imagined.
 Where are all the missing links? None
found like they should be….

9. How old are the bones
 The bones are old because of the rocks
which they are found in…
 The rocks are old because of the bones
found in them
 This is classic circular reasoning…

10. What about the age of the
earth?
 Evolution now postulates 5,000,000,000
years
 There is a great deal of scientific
evidence that the earth is no more than
10,000 or so years old!
 Cosmic dust
 Magnetic field
 Composition of the seas, etc

11. What about the flood
 The flood can explain a great many
details of the earth
 The size of river beds
 Fossils – special requirements
 Oil deposits
 Coal deposits
 The canopy theory can explain long life,
change in climate, etc

12. Evolution is not “just science”
or truly scientific
 It is used as an excuse for the abuses of
Nazi “superman” complex of Germany
 It is used to claim that man is getting
better and better – philosophical basis for
post-millenialism
 It underlies communism

13. No true value to “human
animals”
 Some go back to pagan nature worship
– hug that tree and love the whales…
 Underlies the sense of worthlessness of
many youth – we are simply a chance
assembly of molecules and another
animal… we have no eternal worth or
eternal destiny – just to dissemble and
go back to the earth

14. Christian basis of self-esteem
 God has created you in His own image
 He desires you to live with Him for
eternity
 Although you have rebelled, He loved
you enough that Christ died for you
 You have been created unique and
specially by Your creator

15. Christian values of the
individual
 You are adopted into God’s family
 You have Christ’s righteousness
 Your Father has all power and will
guide you to fulfillment and eternal life
with Him through Christ
 You have His word and His Spirit to
guide and empower you

16. What about theistic evolution?
 Why do it?
 Try to compromise evolution and theology,
usually to maintain academic acceptability
 First, there is no evolution
 Second, a perfect God would make an
imperfect world – a direct contradiction
of the end of Genesis 1

17. Theistic evolution
 Evolution requires
 Total chance
 Massive death and destruction – also note
that this contraindicates the wages of sin is
death
 Theistic evolution rejects the flood, and
accepts geologic uniformitarianism, as
well as the “geological column”

18. Humanism
 Most humanists are secular, but some
are also religious
 Christian
 Buddhist
 Judaism
 Marxist
 Others….

19. Humanism
 Manifesto I (1933) spoke of a new
religion to transcend and replace
previous religions based on allegations
of supernatural revelation
 Had a secular outlook
 Opposed acquisitive and profit-
motivated society

20. Humanistic Manifesto I
 Outlines a worldwide egalitarian society
based on voluntary mutual cooperation
 The creed was felt to be ongoing…

21. Humanist Manifesto II
 Written in 1973 – Paul Kurtz & Edwin
Wilson
 Nazism made them less optimistic, but
still quite optimistic
 Hoped to see war eliminated as well as
poverty

22. Humanist Manifesto II
 Opposed racism
 Opposed weapons of mass destruction
 Strong human rights
 Legal divorce and abortion
 “No deity will save us; we must save
ourselves”
 “We are responsible for what we are
and what we will be”

23. Humanist Manifesto III – 2003
 Knowledge of the world is derived by
observation, experimentation, and rational
analysis (empiricism)
 Humans are an integral part of nature, the
result of unguided evolutionary change
 Ethical values are derived from human
need and interest as tested by experience

24. Humanist Manifesto III – 2003
 Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual
participation in the service of humane
ideals
 Humans are social by nature and find
meaning in relationships
 Working to benefit society maximizes
individual happiness

25. A secular humanist
declaration
 Free inquiry
 Separation of church and state
 Ethics based on critical intelligence
 The ideal of freedom
 Moral education

26. A secular humanist
declaration
 Religious skepticism
 Reason
 Science and technology
 Evolution
 Education

27. What about the USA?
 We see that this is the dominant
philosophy in the educational system of
the USA
 However, there is a great deal of
intolerance to religious belief despite
protest of “free inquiry” – see religious
skepticism

28. This is complicated by post-
modernism
 Modernism = truth is found in science
and rational thought rather than in
supernatural revelation – leads to
humanistic philosophy
 Post-modernism – there is no objective
reality – only subjective – what you
make true to you is true to you, but not
necessarily to me – Irrational

29. Post-modernism
 Following disillusion with modernism,
there developed existentialism, which is
essentially post-modern thinking
 Logic is basically thrown out the window

30. Results of humanism
 Abortion on demand
 Easy sex with no commitment
 Homosexuality & lesbianism recognized
as “marriage”
 Concern for all life – “greenpeace”, save
the whales, etc.

31. Because humans lack worth…
 Suicides are frequent
 Murders, mass shootings, etc.
 Experiments on embryos, even when
technically there is no good reason
 It is possible to get stem cells from skin
 More mature cells have fewer
complications and more success

32. Communism
 The basis thrust of Marx and Engel was
an attempt to correct what they saw as
great economic inequities and
oppression of the working class by the
“bosses”
 Their basic philosophy was to change
economics, and then eventually a
“classless” society would emerge

33. Communism – 10 planks
 Abolition of Private Property
 Heavy Progressive Income Tax
 Abolition of rights of Inheritance
 Confiscation of Property Rights
 Central Bank
 Government ownership of
communication and transportation

34. Communism – 10 planks
 Government Ownership of Factories
and agriculture
 Government control of Labor
 Corporate Farms and Regional
Planning
 Government Control of Education

35. Communism
 One of the basic problems I see is that
they look at humans as basically good.
When production is up, all persons will
happily work hard for the good of all.
 They really deny the sin-nature of man,
as well as the need of a savior

36. Communism
 Marx had a background of Judaism
which then went to a nominal
Lutheranism
 He believed that religion was the
“opium of the people” – making them
accept the pain of their economic
oppression

37. Communism
 In reality, communism became basically
atheistic, and especially anti-Christian
 Persecution is the norm in Communist lands
 At one point, 1/3 of the world population was
communist.
 Now most of eastern Europe is no longer
communist, as well as some countries in Africa

38. Communism
 Basically it is man saving himself
 The state becomes all powerful
 In reality, the state officials have
replaced the “wealthy class” and also
abuse their positions

39. Communism
 Great persecution of Christians exists in
 China
 Laos
 Vietnam
 Cuba
 However, in many of these areas, the
church is rapidly growing