This article serves as the introduction to a consideration of the $200,000 ads from the self-described “godless organization”: the American Humanist Association (and you thought that Humanism was not about atheism, come now) that were mentioned in the post Where we “Created by God to Be Good”?
The American Humanist Association lists 10 ads to be run during the holiday season. In keeping with their nature and self-description; while people of faith look forward to the holidays, Humanist atheists look forward to wasting tremendous amounts of money besmirching those with whom they disagree. Of the 10 ads 8 are anti Judeo-Christian and 2 are anti-Islam (2 out of 10 is actually a major and surprising improvement over the typical atheist tactic yet, it is still indicative of Humanism/atheism as primarily an anti-Christian support group).
Here is part of the American Humanist Association press release:
A national multimedia ad campaign – the largest, most extensive ever by a godless organization – launches today…that directly challenge biblical morality and fundamentalist Christianity…demonstrating that secular humanist values are consistent with mainstream America and that fundamentalist religion has no right to claim the moral high ground.[1]
Oh, the ads outside are frightful, but the substance is less than delightful. Actually, what the ads accomplish is that they leave “biblical morality and fundamentalist Christianity” unscathed and only succeed in discrediting Humanist atheism (as for the two aimed at Islam, I will let Muslims respond with those, if they so please).
This effort is being funded by two organizations, thus far, that are atheistic by any other name:
The Stiefel Freethought Foundation was the primary sponsor of the Consider Humanism campaign with a $150,000 donation. Another $50,000 was raised from supporters of the American Humanist Association for the launch of this campaign, bringing the total ad buy to $200,000 so far.
Here are further statements from the press release:
“Humanist values are mainstream American values, and this campaign will help many people realize that they are already humanists and just did not know the term,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “Humanists believe in and value love, equality, peace, freedom and reason – values that are comparable to those of moderate and liberal religious people…
We want to reach people in every corner of the U.S., from all walks of life, to raise the flag for humanists and show others that they have more in common with us than with biblical literalists…
It’s important that people recognize that a literal reading of religious texts is completely out of touch with mainstream America…
Although religious texts can teach good lessons, they also advocate fear, intolerance, hate and ignorance. It’s time for all moderate people to stand up against conservative religion’s claim on a moral monopoly.”
All quotes from religious texts were checked by scripture scholars to ensure accuracy, context and proper translation…
Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.
Consider their definition of “Humanism” as “the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.” In that case, all Christians are Humanists. This is a point that is confused due to it being a ubiquitously promulgated well-within-the-box-atheist-groupthink-talking-point-de-jour. It actually came up during a debate between a Christian and an atheist on the issue of morality.
The short answer is that to “be good” is a communicable attribute of YHVH and so by the very nature of being made in His image we can “be good” without, here is the key, “belief in God.” This is tantamount to stating the fact that you can fall off of a building and plummet to your squishy death “without a belief in gravity.” It affects you whether or not you believe in it.
Now, note how dogmatic (dogmatheistic) the American Humanist Association is, “Humanist values…Humanists believe” and from the first quote above, “secular humanist values.” This is reiterated within the ads which claim to elucidate that which Humanists believe (via besmirching the Bible and Qur’an since in, sadly, typical atheist form the American Humanist Association cannot simply make a positive affirmation but must function based on the negative).
Does this mean that you cannot be a Humanist, or an American Humanist Associationist, unless you pledge allegiance to their creed, their catechism? Moreover, how do they enforce their creedal catechism? Do they ever excommunicate? Further still, if someone breaks their creedal catechistic values what happens? The bottom line answer is, “Nothing” (see Are there atheist ethics? for details on this point).
Lastly, note the pseudo-evangelistic concept that underlies the ads—conversion, “We want to reach people…to raise the flag for humanists” and, again based on the negative, “and show others that they have more in common with us than with biblical literalists.”
As we consider their ads keep in mind that while they claim “that a literal reading of religious texts is completely out of touch with mainstream America” and that “All quotes from religious texts were checked by scripture scholars to ensure accuracy, context and proper translation” we will find that even if that much is granted, they are not tackling the issue with integrity.
Meanwhile, make a list of things, concepts, philosophies, etc. that “advocate fear, intolerance, hate and ignorance.” Make sure to include the American Humanist Association since they are asserting themselves via a they are wrong, we are right; leave them and join us based campaign.
The first ad listed on this AHA page is “On Women” so apparently this is the beginning and end of what the Bible and Humanism believes “On Women”:
“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2)
“The rights of men and women should be equal and sacred—marriage should be a perfect partnership.” (Robert G. Ingersoll, In A Letter Dated April 13, 1878 AD).
Clearly, the issue is not women in general but marriage in particular—expressed via touching upon rights, equality and the secular-sacred (whatever that is). For a detailed consideration see Is the Bible misogynistic? which makes some bullet points and links to further info.
Begin with the fact that the Bible instantly elevates women to being ontologically (in their very nature and essence) equal to men by affirming that YHVH created both males and females in His image (Genesis 5). Then move to the fact that men and women have different roles, such as that women carry babies in their wombs and men do not. This is actually where the confusion seems to occur; the distinction between essential equality yet, differences in roles.
Note that while American Humanist Association claimed that “All quotes from religious texts were checked by scripture scholars to ensure accuracy, context and proper translation” it was noted in part 1 that even granting this; we will find that even if that much is granted, they are not tackling the issue with integrity.
In this ad, they juxtapose what we would term being a “head pastor” and marriage. This is a category mistake. The New Testament states that women should be teachers but the 1 Timothy text is referring to the role of head pastor. The fact that women are to learn is already a tremendous improvement over the ways of the world at that time. One must also factor in historical and cultural context.
Now, what of Robert G. Ingersoll’s letter? Who is he that Humanists must adhere to a statement in one of his letters? This is just to remind us of the point made in part 1 about authority and dogmatheism.
Timeline:
In 1878 AD, Ingersollian Humanism affirmed that, “marriage should be a perfect partnership.”
Millennia previously, Genesis 2 stated “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” but why come together as one flesh? Because “When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them” (Genesis 5:1-2) because it was not good for man to be alone and so, from his very flesh, woman was made. This set up the model for marriage. That “marriage should be a perfect partnership” is clear from the fact that it was not good for man to be alone, that the woman could help him and that they were to dwell together as one.
Also, millennia previously, the New Testament stated:
Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them (Colossians 3:19).
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her (Ephesians 5:25).
Ok, but the Ephesians 5 text states this in verses 22-24,
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Indeed, husbands and wives are both told to do that which is naturally difficult for them: he must love, she must submit.
Yet, Ephesians 5:21, the very previous verse, states, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
You see, it is not as simple as scare-pull-quote-talking-points. There is an interaction of concepts here. Essential equality, different roles, submitting to each other as a body of believers, husbands and wives doing that which is difficult for them, etc. thus, “marriage should be a perfect partnership” (see Muhammad and Jesus for an interesting juxtaposition).
Perhaps the ad at this link would be more befitting a nationwide $200,000 campaign. The American Humanist Association are Charles Darwin fans so here is the text of the revised ad:
“When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them”
GENESIS 5:1-2
“Man is more courageous, pugnacious, and energetic than woman, and has a more inventive genius.”
CHARLES DARWIN, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
It presents another well-within-the-box-atheist-groupthink-talking-point-de-jour via a scare-pull-quote:
“If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the SLAVE dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the SLAVE gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.”
EXODUS 21:20-21 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)
“We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of FREEDOM consonant with responsibility.”
HUMANISM AND ITS ASPIRATIONS
One wonders whether the word translated as “slave” is bold and capitalized in the Hebrew text.
Having written various times on this issue, I will simply direct the interested read to two essays:
Does God Command You to Beat Your Slaves?
Does the Bible and its God Condone Slavery?
They are committing many errors such as that slavery is not slavery always slavery; not the same thing in every instance. For example, indentured servitude, working to pay off a debt, is sometimes referred to as “slavery.”
The Exodus text comes from a section dealing with judicial issues and distinguished between what we call premeditated murder and manslaughter.
Also, see Rodney Stark from “The Victory of Reason” on the church’s opposition to slavery
Since of the $200,000 raised for the ad campaign thus far, $150,000 was donated by the Stiefel Freethought Foundation it may relevant to remake the ad with the words of a freethinker, Dan Barker, with regards to “each person…having inherent worth and dignity.” And, by the way, one can only wonder how “each person” has “inherent worth and dignity” in a God-free universe; inherent from what, the Humanist’s say so?
“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”
EXODUS 22:21
“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”
EXODUS 23:9
YHVH “administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”
DEUTERONOMY 10:18-19
“abortion is a blessing…a fetus that’s the size of a thumb that has, what, what would you put it in a little locket and hang it around your neck?” (state by Dan Barker, during a debate with Dinesh D’souza).
The next American Humanist Association ad with which we will deal is with “On Intelligence” and reads:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.”
PROVERBS 3:5 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION 2007)
“There’s all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic, and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority or revelation.”
RICHARD DAWKINS, AUTHOR AND 1996 HUMANIST OF THE YEAR (HUMANIT JAN/FEB 1997)
This is another ubiquitously promulgated talking point that the essay Dan Barker and Bertrand Russell: The Dynamic Duo of Demonstrably Deleterious Delusion deconstructs.
The fact is that we are all metaphysician and so at the very base, bottom, premise of our worldviews—any and all of them—there are axioms that are not proven or evidenced but assumed or intuited.
Judeo-Christians are told to recognize YHVH as the ultimate premise and atheist Humanist are told to quote evidence, without evidence, and to rely on logic, without justification. In short Richard Dawkins’ statements are “supported by nothing more than tradition” and his “authority.”
The ad at this link may be more telling as it reads:
“‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD”
ISAIAH 1:18
“Put your trust in the scientific method, put your faith in the scientific method.”
RICHARD DAWKINS, WAKING UP IN THE UNIVERSE
“I suppose that is a sort of matter of faith on my, on my part since the theory is so coherent and so powerful.”
RICHARD DAWKINS, interview with Jonathan Miller
A longer ad could have also included that in the New Testament the Bereans are considered more noble (or more “fair minded”) for double checking everything that Paul told them (Acts 17:11), Thomas asked for the evidence which the others had seen and had merely retold to him (John 20:24-30), Jesus stated, “Love the Lord your God with all your…mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38).
We are clearly called to discern, test, and judge, prophets, spirits and all things:
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” (1st Corinthians 14:29). One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is “discerning of spirits” (1st Corinthians 12:10). “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1st John 4:1). “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1st Thessalonians 5:19-22).
“you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly” (Deuteronomy 13:14).
Etc., etc., etc.
For more dissections of fallacious atheist ads see: Atheist bus ads and billboards
“On Women”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Slavery”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Intelligence”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Homosexuality”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Fear”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Hate / Hatred”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Punishment”
Original ad:
Remix:
“On Genocide”
Original ad:
Remix:
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Notes: [1] AHA, Humanists Launch Largest National Advertising Campaign Critical of Religious Scripture, Posted: 13:44PM on November 09 2010 AD, Washington, D.C., November 9, 2010 AD