Secular History and Humanism

QUESTION: Secular History – Humanism and the Bible

ANSWER:

Ironically, Secular Humanists use the discipline of history to support their atheism by claiming that a scientific approach to history exposes the mythological nature of the Bible, especially the miracles of Christ. Paul Kurtz declares, “There is no evidence that Yahweh spoke to Abraham, Moses, Joseph, or any of the Old Testament prophets.”¹ Harry Elmer Barnes equally distrusts the accuracy of the Bible: “Biblical criticism, applied to the New Testament, has removed the element of supernaturalism from the biographies of its founders as thoroughly as Old Testament criticism has from those of its heroes.”²

Secular History – Humanists Deny the Accuracy of Scripture
Secular Humanists regard the Bible, and especially its historical account of Christ’s resurrection and ascension, as historically inaccurate.3 Indeed, Humanism’s atheistic theology and naturalistic philosophy disallow the existence of the supernatural altogether.

Notes:

Rendered with permission from the book,Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews(Rev. 2^nd ed), David Noebel, Summit Press, 2006. Compliments of John Stonestreet, David Noebel, and the Christian Worldview Ministry at Summit Ministries. All rights reserved in the original.

¹ Paul Kurtz, Eupraxophy: Living Without Religion (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1989), 33–4.

² Harry Elmer Barnes, The New History and the Social Studies (New York, NY: Century, 1925), 21.

³ See volume 1, chapters 25 and 26 of Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, 4 vols. (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2002), for a defense of the historicity of the Bible.