Humanism is a Delusion
Less than pure reason, Humanism is dependant on history blindness
It is an assumption by the secular modern world that humanist beliefs are the product of what we might loosely call enlightenment values; science, reason, rationality and atheistic self-reflection, the product of the overthrowing of religious dominion. Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker wrote a book in 2018 called Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, essentially arguing that the world has been getting continuously better because of these “enlightenment” values that we inherent.
It is a persuasive idea to believe, after all we have (some, social media excluded) reason, science and rationality, we are in the West mostly secular and we also mostly accept humanist beliefs such as the unique value, freedom and moral autonomy of humans, so why would we not accept the idea that the link between the two is causal?
It is a strange fact that modern science and atheism is also keen to emphasise the sheer insignificance of humans when it seems convenient, especially when positioning itself against a religion that sees humans as ordained with a unique position in the cosmos. Darwin himself, who had an ambiguous relationship with theism, said “Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a…
