By Mxolisi Masuku
Mxolisi is a secular humanist based in Harare, Zimbabwe. In this article, he poses a challenge to readers. Given that humanism is sometimes said to be a cult, both in Africa and elsewhere, what's the most effective way to refute this allegation? Can you reduce humanism to its fewest axioms?
The topic of cults, especially here in Africa, comes ripe with scandal. My first thought as a non-religious writer was to give you an exposé of ridiculous cults doing weird stuff down here in Zimbabwe. But hey, I thought you deserved more than that. How do you feel about cults? What if someone says that Humanism is a cult? What clever words and ideas would you weave to defend your life stance? For me, this problem isn’t just hypothetical. There are only a handful of humanists in Zimbabwe, and the Christians here can barely stand two minutes’ conversation with us. To them, humanism IS a cult – a well-funded, politically-motivated cult! So how can we distinguish humanism from a cult – especially the higher-order cults which attract many young intellectuals to pseudo-science?
The problem of using scientific arguments against cults
The key difference is that humanism uses science, right? This objection is cool, but it falls short when you consider that many cults have managed to twist people's understanding of science to their benefit. Here it’s important to understand that it's not the science that's warped, it's people's understanding of science. Our perception of the world is more important to us than the world itself. Whoever shapes our understanding of the world has control over how we view particular things in the world. This is why it is difficult to convince someone to abandon their religious beliefs using scientific arguments alone. Unless we can completely change their understanding of science, which can take many years, they can always argue that our interpretation of science is flawed and influenced by evil forces. The key characteristic of cults is their absolute control over a person's perception.
Christian Science
One of the oldest Christian pseudo-scientific cults in the world is represented in Zimbabwe. Christian Science was founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, and it is absurdly rich. I first came across it when I was wandering in Harare Central Business District – and it was very strange to find it there, close to the National Art Gallery, the Roman Catholic Church and, most strikingly of all, the Old Parliament Building. You just don’t get real estate in Harare unless you have considerable power and resources. In fact, the cult is as old as any of Zimbabwe’s key public institutions, and has existed quietly alongside 'them despite its dangerous ideas. Christian Science is a 'science' which believes in, and studies God as, an infinite principle, weaving together unexpected mythology across medicine, science, and theology. Briefly, Mary Baker Eddy had a life-threatening accident and doctors said she would die, but she didn't. On her supposed deathbed, she read the Bible, got healed and 'understood' that miracle healings weren't really miracles. To get healed you just had to be in sync with the laws of God and use them to overcome your sickness – sickness being a sign of sin.
Mary Baker Eddy was a dangerous cult leader whose teachings brainwashed her followers into believing that hospitals and modern medicine are tools of the devil and that the only way to heal is through faith. She used her claims of being healed of life-threatening injuries through her faith to encourage her followers to follow her example. Her reckless and misguided beliefs have put countless lives at risk, and her cult must be exposed for the danger it poses to its members and society as a whole.
Christian Scientists believe that using scientific discoveries such as the Big Bang theory or evolution to deny the existence of God indicates a lack of understanding of the essence of science itself. To a Christian Scientist, science is not just a study of the physical world, but a study of God, who is the main principle behind all the other principles that govern the world. You simply can't reason with them! Even worse, this is an eloquent cult which is extensively documented and organised by people who are clearly highly educated. Beating them won't be a walk in the park.
Enough about that. Let's play a game. Imagine someone defines humanism in the following erroneous way. How would you defend it?
There is a global cult called humanism. It's a powerful cult with members in over fifty countries and it’s gaining influence with the UN and with many governments. In essence, humanism makes a lot of assumptions about science and this makes it difficult to have a purely scientific conversation with a humanist. Critically, modern humanists use our inability to formulate a scientific understanding of consciousness as a basis for their arguments. They assume that biological death is the end of life simply because scientists haven't been able to answer the question, 'What happens to consciousness when we die?' You'll hear humanists say 'this is the one life we have'. But how do they know? Are we our bodies or are we our consciousness? It’s crazy. Many of the great thinkers of our time have been calling them out too, especially the liberal humanists. Yuval Noah Harari says humanism isn't rational because it makes lots of assumptions just like religions do. Take, for instance, the humanist emphasis on equality and the construct of rights. What scientific experiment can a humanist conjure up to prove the equality of human beings? Rights and equality are philosophical concepts which we like because they promote fairness, but they are deeply rooted in metaphysics, not science. Even so, humanists uses them as a basis for their scientific cultic thinking. To compensate for this ideological inadequacy humanists, much like Christians, imagine a saviour construct like Jesus to save humanity and make everybody prosper. Where Christians say accepting Jesus is the answer to building a utopia, humanists say accepting constructs called 'rights', and making them accessible to all, is how you build a utopia.
Your challenge
Humanism is not a cult and it’s absurd for anyone to think that it is, but can you articulate and deconstruct the source of this absurdity? The survival and improvement of humanism relies on its capacity to anticipate such arguments – if we can call them that. Over the years, new pseudo-scientific movements like Sentientism have been rising up and making attacks on humanism and its supposed inadequacies. One notable case, although anecdotal, is the Genetically Modified Skeptic's video Why I, as an Atheist, Am No Longer a Humanist. Check it out, it's worth your time (link provided below). There are two things to take away from this article. Some argue that humanism is a cult, and others say that pseudoscientific cults are emerging from humanism. How do we respond to them? And in our responses, do we really differ from our opponents in the cults we look down on – for whatever reason? It gets worse. For some reason, humanists believe that humans and animals have different rights even though there isn't any proof that human and animal consciousness are different from each other. Have you heard the argument that since everything in the universe is connected to the same energy system then either everything is conscious or nothing is conscious? The humanist doesn't quite get that and, for that reason, humanism is alleged to be bad for human progress.
'The real battle is between the humanists and the extinctionists. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.' Elon Musk
Humanism as we intend to shape it here in Zimbabwe, and hopefully in Africa and around the world, is a movement which aims to utilise the human capacity for reason and science as a way of enhancing ecological harmony. And yet, Christian Scientists and Scientologists can say the same. The reason we often don’t call these two organisations 'cults' is because of their power, their money, and their enormous number of followers. But here in Africa, humanism has only handfuls of adherents – just like a cult.
I believe the next wave of anti-humanism won’t come from religion but from pseudo-science. Your challenge, if you accept it, is to reduce your appreciation of humanism to its fewest axioms. The better we can express these axioms and their relationship to the fundamental laws of science, the more likely it is that we can save our movement from being called a 'Western cult based on the white man's misunderstanding of science', just like every other cult and religion that's flourishing in Africa right now. Good luck!
Recommended read
Reason in Religion (1905) by George Santayana. In this book, Santayana discusses how religion can be understood through reason, viewing religious beliefs and practices as symbolic expressions of human desires, fears, and ideals rather than literal truths. George Santayana (1863-1952) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. He is known for his contributions to philosophy, particularly in the realms of aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, and moral philosophy. His work bridged the gap between classical philosophy and modern pragmatism, and he is often remembered for his aphorisms, including the famous quote, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
Further information
Christian Science in Wikipedia
Genetically Modified Skeptic 15-minute video: Why I, as an Atheist, Am No Longer a Humanist
Broadly speaking, the presenter’s argument is that humanism does not appear to include other animals in its moral consideration, at least not to the degree that would satisfy him. He is sympathetic to humanism but he prefers the labels ‘sentientist’ or ‘ethical vegan’.
Acknowledgment
A version of this article first appeared in The African Humanist Journal in June 2024 with the title 'A Letter To You Humanist Africans And Your Cults'. We are very grateful for the permission of Mxolisi and TAHJ Editorial Team to reproduce it here. The African Humanist Journal is also on Facebook.
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