Is Man the Measure of All Things?

The father of humanism was Protagoras. He lived in the ancient Hellenistic world, back even before Plato. He had a little creed, which these books will tell you was the first creed of humanism. And that creed is homo mensura, man the measure—that is, the ultimate norm by which everything is to be evaluated and weighed is man. Man is ultimate. Man is the measure of all things. What was it said? The proper study of mankind is man.

What does Christianity say? The proper study of mankind is God because it’s only in the knowledge of God that we come to a proper understanding of who man is because man is created in the image of God. It’s not that God is created in the image of man, but man is dependent, finite, contingent. God is eternal, infinite, independent. He’s the norm by which we understand our own existence. We are His image. He’s the real thing; we’re the image.

But Protagoras, ladies and gentlemen, did not invent humanism, and homo mensura was not the first creed of humanism. The irony of humanism is that the inventor or the founder and the father of humanism wasn’t even a human being. It was a snake. A snake came to two people one day and said: “Did God say you shouldn’t eat anything? You won’t die.” And then came the first creed of humanism: “You shall be as gods. You will be the norm. You will be the absolute. You won’t die.” But that’s the lie, see, because the only way the devil could convince Adam and Eve that they could be gods was to assure them of a glorious destiny: “You won’t die.” Guess what, folks? You will die.