Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The end of humanism: Mankind doesn’t fare too well in cutting-edge intellectual thinking
WORLD ^ | April 22, 2006 | Gene Edward Veith

Posted on 04/15/2006 3:55:18 AM PDT by rhema

Remember humanism? That optimistic belief that human beings are the apex of the universe, the source of all values, and the measure of all things? Throughout the 20th century, many intellectuals believed that humanism would take the place of the world's religions.

And yet, even within the world of humanism, the status of "Man" has been diminishing. In the sequence of Humanist Manifestos issued over the years, what began with the exaltation of "Man" has been reduced to the exaltation of "science," by which adherents mean evolution. Today, "secular humanists" still believe in secularism, but the humanism is all but gone. They have taken the next step, deriding humanism as an outdated relic of modernism. Cutting-edge thinking is increasingly anti-human.

Consider a recent speech by University of Texas biologist Eric Pianka. He was addressing the Texas Academy of Science, which had just named him the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.

When people learn what is being taught in their tax-supported universities, they are often shocked. So before Mr. Pianka's talk, Academy officials threw out a TV cameraman who was videotaping the conference. Mr. Pianka explained that the public was not ready to hear what he was going to say. The old humanists used to believe in the freedom of the press and the free flow of ideas. But ordinary Texans might not approve of hearing that this Distinguished Texas Scientist wanted to kill them.

Mr. Pianka began by condemning "anthropocentrism," the idea that human beings have a privileged place in the universe. He told about a neighbor who once asked him what good are the lizards that he studies. Mr. Pianka replied, "What good are you?"

Mr. Pianka believes, in his words, "We're no better than bacteria!" and he has proposed an anti-bacterial course of hygiene. He said that, in order to save the planet, the human population should be reduced by 90 percent. War and famine are not efficient enough, he said, to kill the billions of people necessary. Disease would be the best population reducer. AIDS, though, works much too slowly.

What would be best, he said, is Ebola, a Central African virus that liquifies the internal organs. An airborne variety of Ebola, he calculated, would produce 90 percent mortality.

The Academy gave Mr. Pianka a sustained ovation. In the Q&A that followed, Mr. Pianka said, "You know, the bird flu's good, too." He also suggested we "sterilize everybody on the Earth." He praised China with its forced-abortion laws "because they got a police state and they can force people to stop reproducing."

This anti-human stance, though not always presented so blatantly, has become commonplace. Princeton professor Peter Singer, one of the world's leading ethicists, also rejects the notion that human beings have a special status over animals. While arguing for animal rights, Mr. Singer rejects intrinsic human rights, calling not only for abortion but infanticide, as well as nonvoluntary euthanasia for the handicapped.

Meanwhile, in art and literature classes, professors take on "the myth of the artist," which lauds human creativity and individual genius. Instead, according to contemporary anti-humanist criticism, the artist is just a "construction" of the culture, whose forces and power relationships completely determine what a Shakespeare or Michelangelo thinks and creates. Social scientists do the same with "the myth of the individual," asserting that self-consciousness itself is nothing more than a cultural construction. They also argue that freedom is an illusion, that the only difference between free societies and police states is that free societies force people to police themselves.

Christianity rejects humanism too, recognizing the depravity and limits inherent in fallen humanity. And yet, Christians are not anti-human. Human beings bear value as the image of God. And God Himself became a Man, in His incarnation in Jesus Christ, who offered Himself as a sacrifice for man's salvation. As the secularists spiral down into ever-greater inhumanity, Christians may be left as humanity's only defenders.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: academia; christianity; evolution; humanism; pianka; scientists; secularism; worldview

1 posted on 04/15/2006 3:55:19 AM PDT by rhema
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: rhema
Is it just me or do some of the most disgusting human beings on the face of the earth reside in our universities. When will we wake up and clean house.
2 posted on 04/15/2006 4:07:52 AM PDT by SHOOT THE MOON bat (Blessed are the peacemakers (the US Military) for they shall be called the children of God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SHOOT THE MOON bat

Wow, these guys make Hitler seem like a nice guy.


3 posted on 04/15/2006 4:21:19 AM PDT by Duke Wayne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: rhema
How long before some idiot releases the plague on us in order to "save the planet"? This nut is a serious threat. We should help his plan along a little by doing him and his pals.
4 posted on 04/15/2006 4:22:13 AM PDT by Jaysun (If anything is possible, then it's possible that nothing is possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema

"The end of humanism: Mankind doesn’t fare too well in cutting-edge intellectual thinking
WORLD ^ | April 22, 2006 | Gene Edward Veith"

Let me fix that title for you...

"The end of LIBERAL humanism: LIBERAL, EVIL, LYING POS DIM MEMBERS OF mankind do not fare too well in cutting-edge intellectual thinking
WORLD ^ | April 22, 2006 | Gene Edward Veith

Much better, and far more truth!

LLS


5 posted on 04/15/2006 4:28:30 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Preserve America... kill terrorists... destroy dims!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema

My daughter and I just finished watching a DVD on Hitler's concept of beauty, art and hygiene, THE ARCHITECTURE OF DOOM. This scientist would be very comfortable with the policies of the Third Reich. Getting rid of all the 'germs' of the human race in order to beautify the planet. However, instead of just advocating the removal of the deformed, terminal ill and the Jews, it is now a significant percentage of the human race. One must beautify the earth for the pure reign of the scientific community.


6 posted on 04/15/2006 5:16:57 AM PDT by Madam Theophilus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema

Humanisim in it's many forms will ALWAYS end up buggering itself because it lacks the insight to the human condition hat the Creator has.

The Authority of the Creator derives from His Understanding.

Humanisim is the inmates running the asylum.


7 posted on 04/15/2006 5:20:42 AM PDT by TalBlack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TalBlack

Excellent observations!


8 posted on 04/15/2006 5:33:08 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (Golden immigration rule: You have only the rights we would if we entered Mexico illegally.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: rhema

"The Academy gave Mr. Pianka a sustained ovation."

Thats even scarier.


9 posted on 04/15/2006 5:58:08 AM PDT by Rennes Templar ("The future ain't what it used to be".........Yogi Berra)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rennes Templar

Any society that pays someone to preach and teach its extermination at tax payer expense is just nuts.


10 posted on 04/15/2006 6:39:04 AM PDT by ClaireSolt (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: rhema
He can't even do a good job inventing a neologism.

"Anthropocentrism" should have to do with "man-goads" (Greek kentron means "goad" or "sting"--the things Saul is kicking against in Acts 9.5, at least in some manuscripts).

More likely, he's combining a Greek root and a Latin root...a barbarism.

11 posted on 04/15/2006 7:14:46 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema

I wonder how enthusuiastic Mr Pianka would be if he was selected to be part of the 90% to be eliminated?Oh i forgot,he's part of the "intellectual elite".


12 posted on 04/15/2006 7:26:51 AM PDT by Thombo2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema
Pope Benedict said last night that the world was in the grip of Satan and prayed for mankind to open its eyes to the "filth around us".

At an Easter ceremony that recreated the passage of Jesus Christ to the crucifixion, Benedict XVI lashed out at man's "decadent narcissism".

"A slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan", he said. Source

Right on, your Holiness. Right freaking on.

Led by her pope, the Roman Catholic Church will ALWAYS stand up for human life. And we will win.

13 posted on 04/15/2006 7:39:39 AM PDT by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan Any questions?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema

I would like to see Mr. Pianka and his friends volunteer to be the first ones in line at the euthanasia clinic. After all, the best leader leads by example. It would be interesting to see if the courage of his convictions outweighs his own instinct for self preservation! I expect however, that his courage will only extend to helping the rest of us get in line to "save the world". I pray to God that Mr. Pianka and the young people who have been fed these lies will be illumined before they follow the pied pipers of the death culture to their own destruction. As one who did have the courage of his convictions: Jesus said on Calvary, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Happy Easter, everyone!


14 posted on 04/15/2006 8:03:04 AM PDT by Roland8
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema

Why has no one asked this professor to be an example and commit a very public, well annonced suicide!! Could make it a big media event.

Guess it's just a case of do-as-I-say-not-as I-do!


15 posted on 04/15/2006 8:06:59 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rhema
He told about a neighbor who once asked him what good are the lizards that he studies. Mr. Pianka replied, "What good are you?"

Hey, Pianka. When your toilet gets clogged, who do you call? A human or a lizard? Whatta twit.

16 posted on 04/15/2006 8:26:52 AM PDT by wizardoz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: B-Chan

If there is anything which gives me cause for optimism about the future it is the much-maligned catholic church's papal leadership since the reign of John Paul the Great. John Paul II was, and Pope Benedict is now, the ONLY recognizable moral authority on the planet earth. Despite a millenium's worth of apostate assault, BS and betrayal from within and without, the Church is today more than ever the beacon of morality in a squalid world.</p>


17 posted on 04/15/2006 9:09:44 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: rhema
In the sequence of Humanist Manifestos issued over the years, what began with the exaltation of "Man" has been reduced to the exaltation of "science," by which adherents mean evolution. Today, "secular humanists" still believe in secularism, but the humanism is all but gone. They have taken the next step, deriding humanism as an outdated relic of modernism. Cutting-edge thinking is increasingly anti-human.

As the secularists spiral down into ever-greater inhumanity, Christians may be left as humanity's only defenders.


18 posted on 04/15/2006 11:42:56 AM PDT by Donald Rumsfeld Fan ("fake but accurate": NY Times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Verginius Rufus
kentron can be acceptably translated as "center." One of Pianka's students, possibly following his teacher, has coined a greater barbarism, "homocentrism."

As for me, give me that old-time humanism.

19 posted on 04/15/2006 3:02:40 PM PDT by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Dumb_Ox
You're right...I was using the old-time Intermediate Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon and should have read through to the end of the entry for kentron.

Still, "anthropocentrism" is a neologism. Usually, whatever it is, the Greeks had a word for it, but I can't think of what word they might have used if they wanted to express this idea.

20 posted on 04/15/2006 4:14:32 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson