From the moment of his birth, a person seeks to know the world around him, to study himself, to give explanations to strange phenomena. However, in many traditional societies, children are encouraged that a person is not eternal and powerless to change his life in any way, that there are higher divine forces that govern the laws of this world. It is claimed that the goal
a person in this world - to gain spiritual insight, and this can be done only on condition of obedience to representatives of the church. There are many examples in history of how religious figures, through such manipulations with the mind, unleashed protracted bloody wars with dissidents. What are the only
crusades against heretics or "infidels."
With the beginning of the Renaissance, the consciousness of many has changed dramatically. People looked at the world with completely different eyes, then faith in religious dogmas quivered. It was at that time that such a philosophical doctrine as humanism arose. It defines a person as the highest value, and considers his right to freedom of speech, action, creativity, self-realization to be undeniable. Humanism in no case puts a person in the center of the Universe or higher than nature. On the contrary, he encourages people to live in harmony with her. The person, taught by humanists, has enormous potential, and in no case should it be infringed.
The philosophy of humanism has appealed to many and is still relevant. Popular in
the western world, the direction of this trend is called secular (secular) humanism. It promotes universal equality, humanity, freedom in all spheres of public life, high moral principles. Freedom should not be understood as 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 powers. A person should lead a right lifestyle not under penalty of a future life, but because this is the only true path leading to happiness. However, despite this, humanists are not intolerant of people of a different worldview or religion, since one of the basic principles of this trend is freedom of choice.
There are many adherents of secular humanism in the world. However, criticism of this philosophy is heard even more, mainly from religious figures. Their main argument is that secular humanism, despite the propaganda of high
ideals and an appeal to better human feelings, establishes as a judge a human conscience, not a divine law. βOf course,β say critics, βsome manage to lead an ethical life without violating moral precepts, but they are only a few. For many, secular humanism is an excuse for their selfishness, greed and vanity.β
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 opposed here by faith in God, the observance of the commandments left to us by the apostles of Christ. Representatives of this trend believe that without faith in the heart, a person lives, as if in darkness, without a purpose in life, and only God gives us the opportunity to spiritually be reborn and achieve happiness.