Sam and Pearl Oliner, both professors of sociology at
California State University, are authors of one of the most highly regarded
works on altruism, "The Altruistic Personality." The book was the
product of the Oliner’s lifetime of study of non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during
the Holocaust. They themselves had been hidden by non-Jews in Poland. (Dennis
Prager, “Who Would Hide a Jew if Nazis Took Over America?” Townhall.com)
During an interview, Dennis Prager had asked them:
·
"Knowing all you now know about who rescued
Jews during the Holocaust, if you had to return as a Jew to Poland and you
could knock on the door of only one person in the hope that they would rescue
you, would you knock on the door of a Polish lawyer, a Polish doctor, a Polish
artist or a Polish priest?"
Although the Olinger’s are secular Jews, the husband
responded:
·
"Polish priest." And his wife
immediately added, "I would prefer a Polish nun."
Prager, who has been obsessed with the question, “who today
would hide a Jew,” believes that, with the weakening of Judeo-Christian
influence, fewer would be willing to risk their lives.
Why hasn’t today’s secularism shown promise of producing
people with such moral fortitude? Secularism is committed to moral relativism,
which denies the existence of any universal and objective moral laws.
Therefore, we must make up the rules as we go along. Consequently, “goodness”
and “virtue” have no independent existence apart from our creative efforts.
Although many agree that moral sentiments and judgments have
been written into our DNA, secularists believe that blind purposeless evolution
has done the writing. Why then follow the whims of chance, since it lacks both
truth and authority?
The secularist appeals to “enlightened” pragmatism. By this
cost/benefit proposal, what confers the greatest benefit to the majority (or to
the elites) should be deemed moral. However, pragmatic reasoning has often
proved to be self-centered, for one’s own benefit. Such a cost/ benefit
analysis will inevitably conclude that we will be better off sending the Jews
on their way.
For the pragmatist to live according to their personal sense
of virtue is nothing more than self-righteousness. Why? Because, for them virtue
is no more than a self-created, self-enhancing illusion, justified only by its
benefits.
Humanist and author of The Humanist Manifesto II,
Paul Kurtz, claimed that the pragmatic benefits are the only possible
justification for morality:
·
How are these principles [of equality, freedom,
honesty, morality, etc.] to be justified? They are not derived from a divine or
natural law nor do they have a special metaphysical [beyond the material world]
status. They are rules offered to govern how we shall behave. They can be
justified only by reference to their results [benefits]. (Preamble)
Is there any reason to expect that such a morality will
stand against genocide and the threat to one’s own family? The finger of the
Oliners will once again point in the direction of the church and the convent
where a higher Truth in honored.
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