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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.