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The Direction of the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Movement           9

           everything came into being without an ultimate cause, and
           that the universe is going on automatically according to some
           impersonal scientif ic laws.* The Big Bang theory postulates
           that once upon a time there was nothing, whence (inexplicably)
           came everything – for no reason and with nothing or no one
           having caused it. This baloney posing as science is a product
           of  scientism,  the  dogmatic  belief  that  science  can  explain
           everything in materialistic terms.  It admits no existence of
                                             †
           the spiritual, and af fords no goal of life other than to satisfy
           personal desire. All of this parallels Lord Kṛṣṇa’s statement in
           the Bhagavad-gītā (16.8) regarding the godless outlook, and
           certif ies this toxic society to be demonic.

           Liberal humanism is a largely atheistic development that
           promotes the primacy of human beings, both individually
           and collectively, and claims to be guided by rationalism and
           evidence rather than religious faith or established doctrines. It
           is a distinctly Western enterprise, with roots tracing back 2,500
           years to the Greek philosopher Protagoras, a self-proclaimed
           agnostic who declared that “man is the measure of all things”
           and emphasized human subjectivity as the determinant of all
           understanding. More recent seminal Western thinkers who
           have furthered the evolution of liberal humanism include
           Voltaire, Rousseau, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Sartre, and other
           speculators who were “materially engrossed, being blind to
           the knowledge of ultimate truth.” 1

           Liberal humanism translates into moral relativism: the theory
           that there is no f ixed standard of right and wrong, that morality
           is  “user def inable.” Notwithstanding  any  higher ideals  that
           some humanist philosophers have aspired for, the overall

           * Lecture: Liberal Humanitarianism <www.bvks.com/10788>
           † Seminar: The Challenge of Scientism <www.bvks.com/10947>
           1. SB 2.1.2, verse translation.
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