At every stage the fact that will confront us is that there...

At every stage the fact that will confront us is that there existed a force that wanted to alienate Europe from its Christian heritage, replace it with a secular ideology and, with this program in mind, to destroy its religious institutions. This force attempted to cause Europe to accept a doctrine that had been handed down from Ancient Egypt through the Kabbalah. As we pointed out earlier, at the basis of this doctrine were two important concepts: humanism and materialism.

First, let us look at humanism. Humanism Revisited "Humanism" is considered a positive idea by the majority of people. It brings to mind notions such as love of humanity, peace and brotherhood. But, the philosophical meaning of humanism is much more significant: humanism is a way of thinking that posits the concept of humanity as its focus and only goal. In other words, it calls human beings to turn away from God their Creator, and concern themselves with their own existence and identity.

A common dictionary defines humanism as: "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."33 The clearest definition of humanism, however, has been put forward by those who espoused it. One of the most prominent modern spokesmen for humanism is Corliss Lamont. In his book The Philosophy of Humanism, the author writes: [In sum] humanism believes that nature ...

constitutes the sum total of reality, that matter-energy and not mind is the foundation stuff of the universe and that supernatural entities simply do not exist. This nonreality of the supernatural means, on the human level, that men do not possess supernatural and immortal souls; and, on the level of the universe as a whole, that our cosmos does not possess a supernatural and eternal God.34 As we can see, humanism is almost identical to atheism, and this fact is freely admitted by humanists.

There were two important manifestos published by humanists in the last century. The first was published in 1933, and was signed by some important individuals of that time. Forty years later, in 1973, a second humanist manifesto was published which confirmed the first, but contained some additions relative to some developments that had occurred in the meantime.

Thousands of thinkers, scientists, writers and members of the media signed the second manifesto, which is supported by the still very active American Humanist Association.