Home > God > God does not exist > secular humanism > human abilities

We use our human abilities, such as the use of critical reasoning and the use of scientific methods, to seek factual evidence leading to solutions to human problems.

The above is referred to as Modernism. While many still cling to Modernism, this is a belief that is in decline.

Modernism is a rational approach which originated in Europe in the 1600's. However, as much as we'd like to believe we are in control and can solve the world's problems, the belief in Modernism is in decline. Why? Because the evidence shows the rational approach to solving humanity's problems did not work. An overwhelming amount of evidence has accumulated over several centuries proving that we can not solve our problems using our rational, human abilities.

For awhile it seemed that our human abilities and rational approach to solving human problems was working. From the 1600's, through the 1700's and into the 1800's scientific advances continued to improve the life of the both ordinary people and privileged (rich) people. However, the belief in modernism started to crack during World War One, in which the use of poison gas showed how science could be used for mass killing. Then came the depression, Stalin's massacres, World War II, the atom bomb--more and more "bad news". The rational, scientific approach was not improving the world. The rational, scientific approach did not work.

This has lead to Post Modern thought. We currently appear to be almost fully transitioned from Modernism to Post Modernism.

Post Modernism is a rejection of the rational thinking process of Modernism. In Post Modernism truth has become relative. There are no longer absolute truths. What is true for you does not need to be true for me. This, of course, leads to chaos, but that's a subject for a different page.