Who is Controlling Your Mind?

The exaltation of human reason is not a new idea. It is in fact a religion…the very religion that is widely accepted in our schools. It's secular humanism. The irony of it all is that the very people who criticize Christianity as mind control don't realize that they themselves have had their minds controlled all along.

Although there is supposed to be a separation of religion and state, the only religion that is allowed to freely flourish in our schools is the religion of humanism.

A humanist, Dr. C.F. Potter was an honorary president of the National Education Association. He authored the book, Humanism: A New Religion, in which he wrote:

Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school's meeting, for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?

The Supreme Court declared humanism to be a religion in 1961 in Torcaso vs. Watkins. It is ironic that the very people who criticize religion are part of a religion themselves and may not even know it. Secular humanism is a belief system that excludes God and His moral principles. Humanists have been very successful in spreading their beliefs primarily through our public school system.

John J. Dunphy, in his essay, The Humanist (1983), illustrates the strategy of humanism, “The battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: A religion of humanity -- utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to carry humanist values into wherever they teach. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism."

John Dewey, who is well-known for his work in establishing America's current educational systems, was one of the main signers of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto. The humanists have been interested in America's education system for almost 100 years. This explains the seemingly immovable teaching so prevalent in the schools that God is imaginary and contrary to "science."

Secular humanism is manifested in the theory of evolution which is pretty much taught as fact in our schools. The first plank of the Humanist Manifesto states: "Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created." The second plank states: "Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process." It just seems strange that this religious teaching is not excluded from our schools when there should be a clear separation between religion and state.

The word "humanism" was coined during the Renaissance. A humanist was one who would focus his studies on man and his thoughts as opposed to God and the spiritual. The definitions of humanism can be found in the Humanist Manifesto I and II: "We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless or irrelevant to the question of survival and fulfillment of the human race. As non-theists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity."

Humanism is the second oldest religion in the world. It started way back in the book of Genesis chapter 3 when Satan told Eve, "...Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Humanism denies the sovereignty of God. It teaches that man is central, sovereign and autonomous. It teaches that values are relative, based on experience, human reason, the will of the majority, or based on the situation. There are no absolutes. It teaches that reason is supreme and that all that can be known is known through the scientific method.

So all the time that I spent being proud of my ability to think for myself and criticizing people who followed Christ, I was in fact being controlled by the religion of humanism. Maybe it's time we all stepped back and thought about who is influencing our beliefs and what the basis is for the world view that we have. Also, if we are being influenced by the religion of humanism, are we really being open-minded when humanism ignores the facts concerning the resurrection of Christ and ignores evidence that contradicts evolutionary theory?

Adolph Hitler is quoted as saying, “Let me control the textbooks and I will control Germany." It's time we asked ourselves who is controlling our minds.