Simply defined, humanism is man’s attempt to solve his problems independently of God.—Tim LaHaye, The Battle for the Mind

Humanism is the religion which deifies man and dethrones God.
—Homer Duncan, Secular Humanism

Humanism is the viewpoint that men have but one life to live and that human happiness is its own justification and needs no sanction or support from supernatural sources; that, in any case, the supernatural does not exist.
—Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism

Humanism is a preoccupation with man as the supreme value in the universe and the sole solver of the problems of the universe.
—John Eidsmoe, The Christian Legal Advisor

Humanism is the placing of man at the center of all things and making him the measure of all things. It means man beginning from himself, with no knowledge except what he himself can discover and no standards outside himself.
—Francis Schaeffer, The Christian Manifesto

PILLARS OF UNBELIEF
Just as there are “pillars of faith”—those who serve as role models for any particular religion—secular humanism has its leading thinkers, or “pillars.” Here is what some of them say:

•    It is far better to be feared than loved.—Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527)

•    The knowledge of the other world can be obtained here only by losing some of that intelligence which is necessary for this present world.—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)

•    In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. Belief means not wanting to know what is true. —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

•    My object in life is to dethrone God.—Karl Marx (1818–1883)

•    The true believer is in a high degree protected against the danger of certain neurotic afflictions; by accepting the universal neurosis he is spared the task of forming a personal neurosis.—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

•    Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind them...there is nothing.—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)

ON “MORAL RELATIVISM”
Without God there’s no reason to be good, no reason to be loving, because all goodness and all love comes from Him. When you shut God out, there’s nothing left but just living for yourself and satisfying your own desires and wants. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Eventually that’s all you’re going to be left with—wickedness! After all, if there’s no God, what makes one person’s sense of right and wrong any better than anyone else’s? Who’s to say what you should or shouldn’t do? People end up just doing what feels good and what they want to do. Look at the world today and you’ll see where that kind of thinking leads to. It’s scary!
—David Brandt Berg