Book Review: The Death of Humanity by Richard Weikart

Perhaps I cannot say it any more clearly than this:

The Death of Humanity is an important book.

We live in a time where almost all of our public political disagreements and our personal identity issues perhaps boil down to these questions, “What is man?” and more personally, “Who am I?”

It cannot be stated enough how critically important our definition of humanity is.

Throughout the book, Weikart looks to history, following the devaluing of human life that has resulted from secular philosophies. Please note that this devaluing of life in history has not merely been an intellectual exercise. It has, in fact, led to more actual human death and suffering than any other worldview.

How the book is written

In each chapter, Weikart takes a thesis and thoroughly brings us to the origins of a certain thought and follows its progression to the current day. He thoroughly cites philosophers, scientists, and other influential thinkers from the Enlightenment to today in order to display their troubling and often devastating beliefs.

He clearly states these thinker’s ideas and masterfully shows how oftentimes their beliefs ironically defeat themselves or even accomplish the opposite of their original goals.

Weikart is an expert in showing the actual historical results philosophies and worldviews have led to. As it has been said many times before, ideas have consequences.

This is not scare tactics

While it can sound like The Death of Humanity is a book of scare tactics against secular ideologies, it really isn’t. Weikart, like any good historian, readily admits the faults of Christians throughout history and is very clear that holding to secular philosophies does not necessitate that one becomes a moral monster.

While observing tragedy in history, Weikart’s ultimate goal is to give hope for the future. In his own words, he sees the hope for the future in this way:

I am suggesting that the solution to the death of humanity is a revival of Christian love and compassion, a renewed sense that human life has meaning and purpose, because we are created in the image and likeness of God.

This may seem like a simple answer, but it is quite profound. If any of these things—love, compassion, meaning, purpose, man created in the image of God—is taken away, the results can be deeply troubling.

Let me give you an example from chapter 2.

Man, the animal

There is a common theme in secular philosophy that man is simply an animal. This has been clearly stated by philosophers, scientists, activist groups like PETA, and even Darwin himself.

In recent, 21st century history there have been several zoos that have had human exhibits to help communicate this point. The zoo visitors would watch these humans in their exhibits and read about how man is really no different from animals at all, except for the facts that they tend to be a “plague” to other species.

It is almost laughable to imagine people temporarily living in a zoo exhibit in order to make a statement, but let me ask you this:

What if someone put a black man in a cage at a zoo exhibit?

And not only in a human exhibit but in a cage full of primates?

And in metropolitan New York?

This may shock you, but this actually happened.

Ota Benga was a pygmy who was put on display with primates at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. While African-American clergymen protested the exhibit, the zoo directors, scientists, and other committed Darwinists defended the exhibit.

When we see a black man in a cage with primates we clearly see that there is something deeply wrong. However, when we have human exhibits at zoos today we say “It’s true, mankind is really just an animal.”

This devaluing of mankind to being an animal does not end in one tragedy of a man on display at the zoo. It leads to and has led to far worse things—things like the Holocaust. Yes, even Hitler himself clearly believed that mankind was a type of animal. On one hand, this belief led him to care deeply for animals but on the other, it justified his horrific acts against humanity.

In summary

I have shared just a few powerful examples from this book, but there are far more. Consider this quote from the final chapter [formatting my own]:

Humans on display in zoos.
Comparing farm animals in captivity to Holocaust victims.
“After-birth abortion.”
Physicians killing patients, sometimes even when they are not sick or in pain.
Accusing fetuses of assaulting their mothers, just because they are living peaceably in utero.
Promoting ‘love drugs’ to make us more moral.
Granting computer programs moral status.

These are just a few examples that powerfully illustrate how sick our society is. As many intellectuals have abandoned the Judeo-Christian sanctity-of-life- ethic in favor of secular philosophies, we have descended into a quagmire of inhumanity. Some today view humans as nothing more than sophisticated machines or just another type of animal. For them, humans are nothing special—just another random arrangement of particles in an impersonal cosmos.

While Christianity can explain why evils like slavery and genocide are wrong, secular philosophies are unable to provide any sort of moral framework to condemn them as objectively wrong.

Again, Weikart is very clear that many secularists do not commit or wish to commit the atrocities mentioned. However, I believe the consistency of their beliefs should be questioned.

The Christian worldview has more to offer the world in terms of human flourishing than any other worldview. When all of mankind is created in the image of God, that means human life in all of its forms is sacred. Jesus also calls Christians to love their neighbors and their enemies alike.

I’ll say it again, The Death of Humanity is an important book and well worth reading. There is much valuable history to be learned and I couldn’t agree more with Weikart’s conclusion. At the end of the day, Jesus is the hope for the future.