Secular humanism is the religion of our time?

From the moment of his birth, man seeks to explore the surrounding world, to study himself, to give explanations to incomprehensible phenomena. However, in many traditional societies, children are taught that man is not eternal and powerless to change his life in any way, that there are higher divine powers that govern the laws of this world. It is argued that the goal A person in this world - to gain spiritual insight, and this can be done only on condition of obedience to the representatives of the church. In history, there are many examples of how religious leaders, with the help of such manipulations with consciousness, unleashed protracted, bloody wars with dissidents. What are the only crusades against heretics or "infidels".

With the onset of the Renaissance, the consciousness of many has changed radically. People looked at the world with completely different eyes, then faith in religious dogmas flinched. It was at that time that a philosophical teaching emerged as humanism. It defines a person as the highest value, and his right to freedom of speech, action, creativity, self-realization finds undeniable. Humanism in no way puts a person in the center of the universe or above nature. On the contrary, he urges people to live in harmony with her. Personality, humanists teach, has a huge potential, and in no case should it be infringed upon.

The philosophy of humanism has appealed to many people and is still relevant. Popular in Western world, the direction of this current is called secular (secular) humanism. It promotes universal equality, philanthropy, freedom in all spheres of public life, high moral principles. Under freedom, one should understand not permissiveness, but independence of actions within reasonable limits. At the same time, the freedom of other members of society is not violated.

Secular humanism denies the existence of God or any other higher forces. A person should lead a correct way of life not under penalty of punishment in the future life, but because this is the only sure way leading to happiness. However, in spite of this, humanists are not at all intolerant of people of another worldview or religion, since one of the basic principles of this trend is freedom of choice.

In the world there are many adherents of the ideas of secular humanism. However, criticism of this philosophy is heard even more, mainly on the part of religious figures. Their main argument is that secular humanism, despite the propaganda of high Ideals and appeal to the best human feelings, establishes a human conscience by the judge, and not a divine law. "Of course," critics say, "some people manage to conduct an ethical life without violating moral precepts, but these are only one, for many, secular humanism is the justification of their selfishness, greed and vanity."

Another direction of the "philosophy of humanity" - Christian humanism - adheres to the same principles as secular, but there is a fundamental difference between them. The atheism of secular humanism is contrasted with belief in God, observance of the commandments left to us by the apostles of Christ. Representatives of this current believe that without faith in the heart of a person lives, as if in darkness, without a purpose in life, and only God gives us the opportunity to spiritually reborn and achieve happiness.