No True Scotsman

[Tonus]

That's what I defined as a humanist view. I think it's clearly inferior to the Christian view. I don't think it's healthy to feel constantly inadequate. That sounds like you would think justified confidence is a bad thing. So I can't agree.

I see it as the reverse: the Christian believes that humanity has lost something that only god can return to us; without him we cannot achieve our potential and will always fall short of it. The only thing worth striving for is to serve god so that when he returns that gift to humanity, we are there to receive it. In other words, you cannot help but to feel inadequate. We have had Christians come here and tell us that they consider humanity to be fallen, sinful, wretched people who are unworthy to be saved and only have hope because god is merciful.

The humanist believes that full human potential is within our reach and that we do not need to wait on god to reach it, we can reach it ourselves by learning and experimenting. Before Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile, the feat was considered impossible; anyone who had tried had failed. Within a few years after he did it, dozens of people also did it. The current record is almost 17 seconds lower! In other words, justified confidence is not only not a bad thing, it is one of the mechanisms by which we progress.

The Christian believes that we will never reach our potential on our own and that the longer we exist in this state, the farther we get from it. The humanist understands that we are barely even realizing just how much potential we have, and that we are getting better and better. IMO, only the latter has the motivation to continue to push towards the limits of human potential.