Ratio Primoris (Reason Foremost): Humanism

The American Humanist Association has initiated a public information campaign. Below are quotes comparing Scripture and what Humanists say:

On Women

The Bible: “Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as it is fitting in the Lord.” Colossians 3:18 (New International Version)

The Bible: "If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity." Deuteronomy 25:11-12 (New International Version)

The Bible: Judges 19:24-29
24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing." But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, "Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home. When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. Judges 19:24-29 (New International Version)

The Bible: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” I Timothy 2 (New International Version)

Humanism: “The rights of men and women should be equal and sacred—marriage should be a perfect partnership.” Robert Ingersoll, in a letter dated April 13, 1878

On Tolerance

The Bible: “If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don't invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement.” 2 John 1:10 (New International Version)

Islam: "Allah's Apostle said, ‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’” Hadith: Bukhari (52:177)

Humanism: “Humanists are concerned for the well being of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views.” Humanism and Its Aspirations

On Slavery

The Bible: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” Ephesians5:5-7 (New International Version)

The Bible: So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, "Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the girls of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, then rush from the vineyards and each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. When their fathers or brothers complain to us, we will say to them, 'Do us a kindness by helping them, because we did not get wives for them during the war, and you are innocent, since you did not give your daughters to them.' Judges 21:20-22 (New International Version)

The Bible:“If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.” Exodus 21:20-21 (New International Version)

Humanism:“We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility.” Humanism and Its Aspirations

On War and Peace

The Bible: “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." Luke 12:51-53 (New International Version)

The Bible: When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies. Deuteronomy 20:10-14 (New International Version)

The Bible: Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished. See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold. Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children. Isaiah 13:15-18 (New International Version)

Islam: "Fight everyone in the way of Allah and kill those who disbelieve in Allah." (Hadith Ibn Ishaq: 992)

Humanism: “We shall each involve ourselves in politics and legislation in order to elect to office peace-loving and life-affirming men and women who will pass legislation designed to put an end to war and other forms of destruction, to bring about peace.” 1969 AHA Resolution on Peace (calling to end the Vietnam War)

On War (Agreement)

The Bible: “’Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’”Matthew 26:52 (New International Version)

Humanism: “Peace is not just a colored ribbon. It's more than a wristband or a t-shirt. It's not just a donation or a 5K race. It's not just a folk song, or a white dove. And peace is more than a celebrity endorsement. Peace is a full-time job.” George Clooney in a statement of support for the United Nations

Humanism: “Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable.” Jodie Foster from her Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech in 1989

On Intelligence
The Bible: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5 (New Living Translation 2007)	Humanism: “There's all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority, or revelation. “ Richard Dawkins, author and 1996 Humanist of the Year (Humanist Jan/Feb 1997)

On Homosexuality
The Bible: "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." Leviticus 20:13 (New International Version)	Humanism: “Humanists reaffirm the validity of sexual equality and supports local, state, and federal action, to legalize same-sex marriage.” AHA Resolution on Sexual Equality and Support of Same-Sex Marriage, 2004

On Fear

The Bible: “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.” Deuteronomy 6:24 (New International Version)

The Bible: “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Luke 12:5 (New International Version)

Humanism: “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” Bertrand Russell

Humanism: “The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.” Albert Einstein

On Hate / Hatred

The Bible: “O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us, he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” Psalm 137:8-9 (New International Version)

The Bible: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." Jesus, Luke 14:26 (New International Version)

Humanism: “I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other.” Katharine Hepburn, Humanist Arts 1985, Ladies Home Journal, 1991

Humanism: “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting," I said, "but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side.” Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night, 1961

On Compassion (Agreement)

Bible: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” Acts 20:35 (New International Version)

Islam: “He whose property exceed his needs, let him support the one whose property does not, and he whose food exceeds his needs, let him share it with those who do not have food.” Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 3, Number 93C

Koran: The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said “(God) has revealed to me that you should adopt humility so that no one oppresses another.” Riyadh-us-Salaheen, Hadith 1589.

Humanism: "The interior joy we feel when we have done a good deed, when we feel we have been needed somewhere and have lent a helping hand, is the nourishment the soul requires. Without those times when man feels himself to be part of the spiritual world by his actions, his soul decays." Albert Schweitzer in “Thoughts for Our Time” 1975

Humanism: “I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it.” Margaret Atwood

Humanism: “To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.” Mark Twain in "Following the Equator” 1897

On Punishment

The Bible: "They shall say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.’" Deuteronomy 21:20-21 (New International Version)

The Bible: You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Exodus 20:5 (New International Version)

The Bible: Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."Genesis 22:2 (New International Version)

The Bible: “The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.” God, Hosea 13:16 (New International Version)

The Bible: “For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.” God, Exodus 31:15 (New International Version)

Humanism: “I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own—a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.” Albert Einstein, column for The New York Times, Nov. 9, 1930 (reprinted in The New York Times obituary, April 19, 1955)

Humanism: “All ethical people should agree that it is immoral to execute someone for doing yard work on Saturday; law should be based on liberty and fairness.” Todd Stiefel, Stiefel Freethought Foundation

On Genocide
The Bible: "Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys." 1 Samuel 15:3 (New International Version)	Humanism: “We need international authorities that can keep interstate and interethnic disputes from erupting into outright war, and adjudicate and enforce measures to punish acts of genocide.” Carl Coon, humanist and former Ambassador to Nepal (One Planet, One People: Beyond ‘Us vs. Them’ pg. 111)

On Violence

The Bible: "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives." God, Jeremiah 19:9 (New International Version)

The Bible: From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 2 Kings 2:23-24 (New International Version)

The Bible: My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Exodus 23-23 (New International Version)

The Bible: "Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Moses, Numbers 31:17-18 (New International Version)

Islam: I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.” Qur'an (8:12)

Humanism: “The American Humanist Association, in support of the creation of a global community, affirms the aim of avoiding the use and distortion of creeds, beliefs, ideologies, and worldviews as a justification for violence (or even for the threat of violence) in pursuit of a goal” AHA Resolution on Global Community and International Affairs, 2008

Which of the above quotations do you agree with?

Ratio Primoris (Reason Foremost)

Pages

The Good Book: A Humanist Bible

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The Humanist View of Sin

Is Humanism A Religion?

The Problem With Atheism, A Buddhist Perspective

What May Come After Religion?

Scripture vs Humanists