Make no mistake about it--Secular Humanism is a religion. Even the United States Supreme Court agrees. Unlike most religions who worship a divine being, Secular Humanists worship mankind. That is why they hate nativity scenes at Christmas. Humanists are committed to annihilating anything from our culture that smacks of "God-centered" religion. Make sure you teach your children that all religions are not equal.

Secular Humanism is even more openly religious than Marxism. Charles Francis Potter, a signatory of the first Humanist Manifesto, wrote a book in 1930 entitled Humanism: A New Religion. Potter claimed to have organized a religious society—the First Humanist Society of New York.

The first Humanist Manifesto (1933) describes the agenda of “religious” Humanists. The 1980 preface to the Humanist Manifestoes I & II, written by Paul Kurtz, says, “Humanism is a philosophical, religious, and moral point of view.”1 John Dewey, a signatory of the 1933 Manifesto, wrote A Common Faith, in which he said, “Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class or race. . . . It remains to make it explicit and militant.”2

While the Humanist Manifesto II (written primarily by Kurtz and published in 1973) drops the expression “religious humanism,” it nevertheless contains religious implications and even religious terminology, including the statement that “no deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”3

Lloyd L. Morain, a past president of the American Humanist Association, wrote a book with his wife Mary entitled Humanism as the Next Step (1954). In this work the authors describe Humanism as the fourth religion. The Morains were co-winners of the 1994 Humanist of the Year award.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in its decision in Torcaso v. Watkins (June 19, 1961), declared that “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others.”4 A few years later (1965) the Supreme Court allowed Daniel Seeger conscientious objector status because of his religious beliefs. He claimed to be a Secular Humanist.

Auburn University’s current Student, Faculty, and Staff Directory contains a section entitled “Auburn Pastors and Campus Ministers.” Included in the listing is a Humanist Counselor, Delos McKown, who also happens to be the head of Auburn’s philosophy department. This is not an isolated example. The University of Arizona also lists Humanism under religious ministries. Harvard University has a Humanist chaplain who is one of 34 full- or part-time chaplains that comprise the United Ministry at Harvard and Radcliffe. He is sponsored by the American Humanist Association, the American Ethical Union, the Fellowship of Religious Humanists, and “generous gifts from Corliss Lamont.”

In fact, the American Humanist Association “certifies humanist counselors who enjoy the legal status of ordained priests, pastors, and rabbis.”5 In its preamble, the Association states that one of its functions is to extend its principles and operate educationally. Toward this end it publishes books, magazines, and pamphlets; engages lecturers; selects, trains, and “accredits humanistic counselors as its ordained ministry of the movement.”6

Kurtz—who has written a book that denies that Humanism is a religion throughout its first half and, in the second half, encourages the establishment of Humanist churches, calling them Eupraxophy Centers—admits that the organized Humanist movement in America is put in a quandary over whether Humanism is a religion. Why? Simply because “the Fellowship of Religious Humanists (300 members), the American Ethical Union (3,000 members), and the Society for Humanistic Judaism (4,000 members) consider themselves to be religious. Even the American Humanist Association,” says Kurtz, “has a [501(c)3] religious tax exemption.”7

Dr. David A. Noebel, president of Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, Colorado, has been involved in training students in Christian apologetics for more than 30 years. This article is taken from his book Understanding the Times.

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