Answer:

Secular humanism is a philosophy and world view which includes an assumption that the physical/natural world is the only reality.  It denies the reality of the existence of God and the supernatural in general.  The ultimate reality in the universe is conscious humanity.  The vision of secular humanism is that, with time, human beings will be better and better.  I believe you can judge for yourself whether or not this vision is realistic, given the sinful nature of human beings.  On the surface, the goal of secular humanism appears to be a good thing.  They seek the gradual improvement of human nature so that we will be more loving, peaceful, more creative, better stewards of the environment and so forth.   Of course, none of these goals are in conflict with Christian philosophy.  We Christians have the goal of being more loving, peacemakers and so forth.

However, there are some major problems with secular humanism.  One thing for sure–this philosophy is absolutely committed to opposing Christianity and belief in deity in general.  Secular humanism and Christianity cannot exist in harmony.  Yes, absolutely this philosophy puts human beings above God, as, to them, God does not even exist.  Like I said, humanity is the ultimate reality to the humanist.  We are the closest thing to god which exists.   Problems with this philosophy include the fact that it simply is not true.  God exists and we are not the ultimate reality.  Physical matter is not all there is.  Soul and spirit are real.  Human beings are not just a sack of chemicals.  We exist apart from our bodies.  Secular humanism assumes that we will improve with time.  The problem with this is that this philosophy denies the existence of sin.  It suffers from the delusion that we do not have a sinful nature.  Pretending that sin is not real does not solve the problem of sin.  Saying that evil does not exist does little to solve the problem of evil.  Experience tells us that humans are not improving. The Bible says that the human heart is desparately corrupt.   We cannot do what is right on our own.   Romans 7 and 8 describes human nature with wonderful accuracy.  We are not able of doing ultimate good because we have a sinful nature.  The solution for human beings is not relying on the gradual improvement of human nature, but reliance on faith in the love of the God who created us and on the blood of God’s Son.  Indeed, I believe that for us to rely on humans to solve all human problems is downright dangerous.  Without God, our cultures and societies will gradually go in an ever-worsening spiral toward greater evil.  The vision of the secular humanist is a false one.

John Oakes