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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3
Average rating: 3.0 of 5
Problems with the previous review 4 out of 5 stars.
32 of 49 people found this review helpful.
Since the only review of this book on amazon.com has obvious bias, I thought it might be worth while to give some responses to that commentary...It seems that Dr. Groothuis, either intentionally misrepresents the arguments of others, or is incapable of reading and thinking at a level commensurate with his education. He claims that:
"[T]he documents claim that morality is relative to cultures and not absolute, yet they also go on to affirm various moral imperatives...
I could not remember reading such a statement in either the Humanist Manifesto I or II, so I re-read the entire thing to look for it. Since he gives no quote or page number, I assume that he was reading the following:
"We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life. (Humanist Manifesto II, p. 17)
This says nothing about ethics being relative to cultures. What it does say, is that ethics must be based on a rational understanding of the particulars of a situation -- that is, we must choose the best alternative given, based on our own social needs, and not on moral absolutes given by some unseen deity. To rely on the supposed words of a deity, simply removes the burden of forming the society we wish to have from our own shoulders, and places that burden on something else in which we blindly place our faith.
Dr. Groothuis also equates Humanism with atheism. Paul Kurtz refutes this claim as well:
"[V]iews that merely reject theism are not equivalent to Humanism. (Humanist Manifesto II, p. 15)
Like many Christians Dr. Groothuis seems to believe that if he can disprove 'the other side' then his world view will be vindicated. This is irrational. No humanist ever claimed to have all the answers. This poses a problem to those who are incapable of dealing with a world in which one must search for answers. This misunderstanding is apparent in Dr. Groothuis' claim that Humanism is inconsistent since Paul Kurtz wrote about an unchanging universe, and we now are of the opinion that there was a 'big bang.' One must remember that at the time this was the most widely held opinion by scientists. The point of Humanism is that you should be capable of responding to the world, and further understanding, not hiding from it with a wall of apologetics built on the ideas of ignorant men who lived in a non-scientific age.
Dr. Groothuis' review is plagued with inconstancies, and Christian apologetics -- too many to cover properly here, and too many to be objective.
Editorial Review:
This is a stirring document outlining a philosophy for survival and fulfilment in our time. Signed by Andrei Sakharov, B.F. Skinner, Corliss Lamont, Betty Friedan, Sir Julian Huxley, Sidney Hook, Jacques Monod, Gunnar Myrdal, and 275 other distinguished leaders of thought and action, it has been hailed as a classic.
