In the previous chapter, I mentioned delivering morning newspapers for six years (1956-1961). What I didn’t point out is the fact that during these 2,000 mornings I observed God’s Creation: I experienced four distinct seasons and realized why each was important. I saw spiders weaving perfect webs that I would walk through, only to see them just as perfectly re-woven the next morning. I witnessed fresh life budding on flowers and saw young birds in nests chirping for food. I looked upward and saw the heavens and knew that God had created all of this.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4 NIV)
“For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20 NIV)
Back then, I had not read these Scriptures. But each morning I saw them come alive, declaring God’s glory and Supernatural attributes. No one told me that God is the Intelligent Designer of all I observed, and this reflects his omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. No one had to tell me, because I saw God’s Creation each morning. This would be more important later in my life than it was then.
My daily observations of God’s Creation occurred before God was expelled from public schools, gradually over 17 years, and became permanently forbidden thereafter. From 1963 to1980, a series of legal decisions made by fewer than nine Justices slowly eroded the Judeo-Christian principles that had guided the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans for nearly 200 years.
How did this happen? Did this make life better – or worse? Keep reading to find out.
In 1963, the Supreme Court of the United States of America (SCOTUS) declared it is unconstitutional – and thus illegal – to say “state-sponsored prayers” in public schools. This outlawed saying “specified prayers” such as the Lord’s Prayer. SCOTUS also declared it is unconstitutional – and thus illegal – to read the Bible in public schools, and in government locations or other places where “separation of church and state” must clearly occur.
In 1980, SCOTUS declared it illegal to post the Ten Commandments in public schools because this is "plainly religious in nature." This latest anti-God ruling by fewer than nine Justices became the law of the land – to establish religious neutrality. But, this disregarded the 200-year old fact that 12 of the original 13 colonies incorporated the entire Ten Commandments into their civil and criminal codes.
Did millions of Americans benefit because of these three Supreme Court rulings made by fewer than nine unelected Justices? No! No! No! What went wrong?
How Did Secular Humanism
Become the State-sponsored Religion?
In public schools and other places, less than nine Supreme Court Justices forbid reading about God in the Bible, praying to Him, and displaying His Commandments. All such “religious” practices were outlawed to ensure “separation of church and state” and to prevent “state-sponsored religion.” Sounds “fair” for all Americans, doesn’t it?
But, what happened next was totally “unfair” for over two hundred million Americans during the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. As the Judeo-Christian culture and American public education began to be eroded, it was replaced – gradually like one “boils a frog” – by a totally atheistic “state-sponsored religion” called Secular Humanism.
Few Germans knew about Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf, his political manifesto for establishing a Totalitarian Government to impose his National Socialism ideology on Germany. Similarly, few Americans knew about Humanist Manifesto I and II (1933; 1973). Each Manifesto more boldly listed the beliefs and strategies for imposing their atheistic religion on the unsuspecting masses. Some key Humanist tenets are summarized below:
Religious humanism satisfies human needs, and opposes traditional religion, which does not do this.
Naturalistic processes replaced God and Supernatural Creation to explain the origin of everything.
The universe spontaneously burst into existence by chance over 13.7 billion years ago; God did not create it in six 24-hour days as The Bible describes.
Matter is all that exists, not spirit, soul or conscience.
Human-decided truths replaced God’s Truths as proclaimed in the Bible.
Survival of the fittest replaced God’s purpose for humans to love Him and one another, resulting in over 100,000,000 “unfit” humans being massed murdered.
Man-made morality replaced God’s Commandments to love Him and one another.
Education’s goal became promoting self-actualization of human potential, not teaching Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic (traditional 3Rs of education).
Experiential learning replaced instruction of what is known (history; scientific evidence).
Evolution from apes replaced creation in God’s likeness.
We must save ourselves; no deity will save us.
No wonder Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution became widely taught as proven scientific fact – even though this theory that humans evolved from apes – lacks observable scientific evidence. Bible-based Creation by God, as described in Genesis, could not be taught in public schools – even as an alternative explanation for the origin of life.
This explains why about 58% of Americans believe we originated because of evolution, whereas only 42% believe God created us. These are the findings reported in a 2019 Gallup Poll. These findings are consistent with a 36-year trend displayed in the graph. Here are recent details: [https://news.gallup.com/poll/21814/Evolution-Creationism Intelligent-Design.aspx]
40% believe in Creationism: the Supernatural God of the Bible is the Creator of human beings in their present form (male and female) and He did this over 6 days, within the last 10,000.
22% believe in Darwinian Evolution: human beings have evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.
33% believe “some hybrid” happened: human beings developed (evolved) over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this naturalistic process.
5% had no opinion.
About 55% of Americans believe evolution is true because this is taught and cannot be
countered by teaching about God and Creation, because this is illegal. This 55% belief in evolution corresponds to the percentage of young Christians, who embrace evolution when they go to college and abandon their faith in God. Oftentimes, in order to pass a course taught by an avowed evolutionist, student’s papers and exam answers must indicate acceptance of evolution as being true. [Other harmful consequences have resulted from the wrongful legal decisions discussed above and subsequently. Appendix A lists them.]
How have kids been the Big Losers?
Since the 1950s, secular humanism has influenced radical changes in American education and Culture. Glen Shultz has summarized how “Kids Have Been Big Losers” over seven decades. I agree with his observations because I lived through these seven decades – and contributed to some of the “loses” in the 1960s and 1970s – I got Glen’s permission to share his summation (http://kingdomeducation.org/kids-big-losers/).
“In the 1950s, kids lost their INNOCENCE: They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term – the generation gap.
In the 1960s, kids lost their AUTHORITY: It was the decade of protest – church, state, parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.
In the 1970s, kids lost their LOVE: It was the decade of me-ism, dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self: self- image, self-esteem, self-assertion. It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex but forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.
In the 1980s, kids lost their HOPE: Stripped of innocence, authority, and love, and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.
In the 1990s, kids lost the MEANING OF TRUTH: It was the decade when our national leaders redefined truth to be merely that which was legally accurate. Public opinion polls defined moral truth while the church sat by quietly and watched.
In the 2000s, kids lost their FAITH: Having lost the meaning of truth and the growing threat of terror attacks, this generation lost their faith in the truth of God’s Word and found their lives being driven by fear.
In the 2010s, kids lost their FUTURE: Being driven by fear and not by faith, a growing number of this generation is frantically chasing the false claims of the American Dream. They are living only for the temporal and, therefore, are chasing after treasures on earth only to find them decaying before their very eyes. They are finding life to be full of despair and are quickly losing any sense of eternity.”
I would add this – kids lost their PAST – because the “politically correct” ideology of the 2010-2020s is revising history to fit its fabricated narrative, and is cancelling everything based on Judeo-Christian principles. Such as: basic Freedoms of Religion, Speech, the Press, the right to Assemble, the right to Petition the government with our grievances.
Lessons Learned: Regrettably, I contributed to the harmful impact of secular humanism in the 1960s and ‘70s, first as a graduate student and then as a professor of humanistic psychology.
Spiritual Insights LOST: “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverb 1:7 NIV) “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
No one knows the future. Perhaps, a “remnant “ of still-faithful Christians will be “raptured” before the “end times”? Only omniscient God knows, only omnipotent God can make this occur and only omnipresent God can oversee this everywhere – in the “twinkling of an eye.”