Restoring Faith In Humanity

Can we trust humans? In his new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, Steven Pinker gives sole credit to humans for all our progress. "The Enlightenment is working," he writes. In his opinion people do not "need to believe in magic, a father in the sky, a strong chief to protect the tribe, myths of heroic ancestors." "Our ancestors replaced dogma, tradition and authority with reason, debate and institutions of truth-seeking. They replaced superstition and magic with science. And they shifted their values from the glory of the tribe, nation, race, class or faith toward universal human flourishing... Secular liberal democracies are the happiest and healthiest places on earth." On the other hand, many survivors of the Holocaust and other travesties perpetrated by man, have declared, that these tragedies have taught us that we no longer can believe in humans; we can only trust G-d. With all the human corruption and selfishness we have witnessed an