An additional area where humanism is an
enemy of the cross is its devaluing of human life. The humanist position is that
all life is a result of natural processes. Humans are simply smarter
animals in the chain of evolutionary life. What makes a person valuable is
purely subjective since there is no creation in the image of God. What is
mankind if not a creature made in the image of God? According to humanism,
people are simply machines and actions are the result of their programming found
in the genes. Frances Shaffer and Dr. C. Everett Coop briefly describe the
process this way:
In our time, humanism has replaced Christianity as the
consensus of the west. This has had many results, not the least of which
is to change people’s view of themselves and their attitude toward other human
beings. Here is how the change came about. Having rejected God,
humanist scientists began to teach that only what can be mathematically measured
is real and that all reality is like a machine. Man is more complicated
than the machines people make, but it is still a machine, nevertheless (Whatever
Happened To The Human Race, page 21, Fleming H. Revel: Old Tappen, N. J., 1979).
It is important for the church to consider how this view of humanity can
influence our thinking. All people are not created equal despite what the
U. S. Constitution says. As society determines the value of people based
on subjective values of humanism, we in the church can allow those values to
creep into our thinking and action. The implications for the church are many.
How valuable is a broken machine? Usually a machine that is not properly
functioning is replaced. The power supply is removed and the broken
machinery is sent to the scrap heap. Often the reason for this is the cost
associated with repairs is not cost efficient. Too much time and money is
spent on repairs with not enough return in productivity. Now consider the
attitude toward the elderly in our nation. One of the first things
mentioned in most studies involving the elderly is how much it costs. One
solution gaining support is assisted suicide. A recent program on NBC had
a paramedic stealing small vials of morphine so he could assist his high school
math teacher in dying. She was suffering from the last stages of cancer
and wanted to say goodbye to her husband and go to sleep. His logic in
helping was the opportunity to “make a difference.”
Also consider the implications for the unborn. When no one wants a certain
product it is removed after a certain amount of time. When a woman does
not want the child developing in her womb she can simply have it removed and
discarded. After all, the place where the fetus is developed is the woman’s
own body (machine) and she should have control over what is done with her own
body. Or when a defective product is manufactured it is scraped, thrown
away. No one buys things that are defective from the manufacturing
process. If a child developing in the womb is defective, the recommended
solution is its immediate removal - abortion.
There is the additional problem of accountability. Machines sometimes do
not operate properly. My father-in-law worked for a company that makes
television picture tubes. The assembly line has several robots with
various tasks to perform. One robot picks up the tube from one line and
sets it down on another. Occasionally one of these robots would drop the
tubes from several feet onto the concrete floor (not a good practice for
increasing inventory). The problem was usually a glitch in the operation
program. What about people who begin to act in sociably unacceptable ways?
The humanist answer has to do with programming, there must be a gene that causes
that. One problem for the church involves the accountability for
sin. When people believe their actions are the product of genetic codes
rather than personal decisions, they feel no responsibility. When they
feel no responsibility, in their eyes there is no sinful conduct.
—Denny