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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Humanism and Christianity, a reply
Message-ID: <687@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-May-84 10:11:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.687
Posted: Mon May 21 10:11:20 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 22-May-84 07:12:26 EDT
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Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
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> The New Testament explains what Christianity is, and the Humanist Manifesto
> explains what Humanism is.  We may judge Christianity, not by Christians, but
> by Christ.  I don't know that there is an equivalent statement for Humanism.

Sorry, but a number of us have yet to see this Christ you speak of. All we have
to judge both philosophies is the documents they produce (humanism's wasn't
very good, at least not to me), and the actions of their followers.  No more,
no less.

> >... Humanism has
> >carried a lot of baggage over from Christianity, but in dropping the
> >notion of God it has at least gotten rid of one of the least defensible
> >tenets of Christianity.
> 
> The unspoken foundation on which this sentence is laid is that both humanism
> and Christianity are a collection of man's morals and values.  It seems we
> are led to believe that Christianity has a lot of good stuff in it, but that
> the "God part" can be dropped, leaving the "good stuff".  My objection is
> the poor choice of words and the implication behind this sentence.  God is the
> central theme and figure of Christianity; he is not a "notion", or some small
> "tenet" that can be discarded at our whim.  Indeed, a basic theme of
> Christianity is Christ's crucifixion.  You may as well say that "in dropping
> the notion of an internal combustion engine..." for automobiles.

If someone could come up with a better way for building automobiles without
the internal combustion engine (less pollution, more efficient, less noisy),
then I assume you would agree that this is a good thing.  The same thing holds
true for belief systems.  Removing the "baggage" associated with "God's way"
and replacing it with reason and rationality ("we do this because...") is
an improvement whether or not there is a god.  It just makes for better people.
Of course I see your point; the key word is "defensible".  But the choice of
"baggage", "notion" and "tenets" in the argument does not do justice to what
Christianity is all about, and does not reflect the true meaning of its
message.

	-- David Norris        :-)
	-- uw-beaver!ssc-vax!david
-- 
"So, it was all a dream!" --Mr. Pither
"No, dear, this is the dream; you're still in the cell." --his mother
				Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr