Humanism

The pivotal frame of Homo Deus. Yuval Noah Harari casts modernity as “a surprisingly simple deal… humans agree to give up meaning in exchange for power,” and argues that what rescued modern society from the resulting moral collapse was not supply and demand but “the rise of a revolutionary new religion — humanism.” Humanism convinces us that “we are the ultimate source of meaning, and that our free will is therefore the highest authority of all” — distilled into slogans like “listen to yourself, be true to yourself, follow your heart.” Its mottoes: in ethics “if it feels good — do it,” in politics “the voter knows best,” in aesthetics “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Harari distinguishes branches — liberal, socialist, and evolutionary humanism — the last rooting itself in Darwinian theory and applauding conflict (e.g., the claim that “the experience of an Einstein or a Beethoven is far more valuable than that of a drunken good-for-nothing”). The book then projects humanism’s successors: techno-humanism (upgrading humans toward Homo deus while clinging to humanist values) and the data religion / Dataism that may sideline humans entirely, just as humanism once sidelined God.

In Kyle’s Yuval Noah Harari page, this is the hinge for a theological counter-reading: Harari frames modern humanism as “the worship of human feeling,” and Kyle reads Living Revelation as a live alternative to Harari’s secular resolution of meaning-loss — with The Crucible of Doubt noted as a religious-engagement counter to humanism’s “ultimate selfishness.”

Context: Humanism is a broad intellectual tradition centering human dignity, reason, and agency as the source of meaning and ethics, often (in its secular form) in place of religious or divine authority.

Where this appears

• Homo Deus — the book’s master frame: the “give up meaning for power” deal, humanism as the religion that saved modernity, and its liberal/socialist/evolutionary/techno- variants.
• Yuval Noah Harari — humanism as “worship of human feeling,” set against Living Revelation as a theological counter.