Humanism and loss of Absolutes

By Jim Killebrew

[February 11, 2015]  Humanism is "a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be best in human beings, rather than on any supernatural authority." (Encarta Dictionary) In an effort to eradicate any form of spiritual thought based on the Christian values found in the Bible, much of the American educational system has based curriculum more on humanistic theory and evolutionary theory. It has been evident over the past decades the educational system is humanistic and has been so for at least the past 75 years. Perhaps the greatest influence on the modern thought began with the destruction of the Absolute.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is studied in universities around the world. He was a German philosopher who looked at the paradigm of absolute Truth in the model of relativity. He described an idea (thesis) as being affected by the "antithesis" of that idea or belief, that eventually evolved into a "synthesis." From that it became a new idea or belief. Of course this is oversimplified and understated, but the paradigm shift proposed by Hegel was significant. It represented a shift from the Absolute Truth to a relative truth that was situational at best.
 

The current, post modern, educational system in America is steeped in the Hegelian thought, as is our very public domain. Everyone who has graduated from high school from the early 1960's on has been under the influence of defining truth with a little "t". It is ingrained in our political, social, economic, public and private lives. Generations have been tutored in humanistic thought and the destruction of Absolutes. It carved out the thoughts of Fletcher, who brought us "Situational Ethics" where the environment, or situation details the morality of the behavior. My grandchildren think I am ancient because I can say I lived before the internet. For them to believe when they become teenagers or young adults that there is anything that relates to an "Absolute" will only exist in what they think of as "science." For that generation we are beyond post modernism.

It is interesting to listen to the debate running around the political and educational circles currently regarding Common Core. Coming from the top down from the government to have a national standard around which the teacher must teach and the student must learn, one wonders what the final outcome of such a system might be. It is almost impossible to dispute the large, federal government's power and influence in everything it touches. Indeed, when an entity has the power of making and enforcing laws that mandate behaviors from the people governed, it is not difficult to see how the influence of the government will not just be "relative" in the strictest sense of that concept, but "absolute" in its ability to insist that everyone be compliant with the national standards. That is evident in the incremental change that always occurs when the federal government initiates a gigantic program. The big stick the federal government carries is the funding, and the withholding of that funding. Text book writers will eventually follow the national standards of Common Core, teachers will teach the content of that source and students will be required to meet those standards in order to progress in their education.

Modern education, with the liberal guidance through national standards from the federal government, science and even our own posterity will eventually not see any need for discovery since they will have lived their lives like the little hamster in the small, clear ball in which he uses to roll around the room. Eventually that will be their universe.

[By JIM KILLEBREW]