La Musique

Friday, March 7, 2008

The session of evangelism with the Hwa Chong Christian group was really intriguing,
and (thanks to Auntie Boon Jin), rather amusing.

Basically we touched on the subject of humanism, and I was re-reading the article today when I came across some rather interesting sections. But first let me give some background on what is humanism.

Humanism has a long history, and its beginnings can be traced to ancient Greece, to the pre-Socratic philosopher Protagoras. Protagoras developed a concept of humanism, which he set forth under the motto homo mensura. It means "Man, the measure." The idea is that man is the measure of all things. Man, in himself, is the ultimate norm by which values are to be determined. He is the ultimate being, and the ultimate authority; all reality and life center upon man.

Now the fun.

Apparently, if we were to examine the central themes of humanism:

"Man is a cosmic accident. He emerges from the slime by chance. He is a grown-up germ. He is moving inexorably towards annihilation. Yet man is the creature of supreme dignity. He lives his life between two poles of meaninglessness. He comes from nothing; he goes to nothing. His origin is meaningless, his destiny is meaningless. Yet, somehow, between his origin and his destination he acquires supreme dignity. Where does he get it? Out of thin air."

5:47 PM