The Challenge of Secularism

Secularism

a term that is used in different ways.

• belief that religion should not be involved in government or public life

• principle that no one religion should have a superior position in the state

• often entails a belief in a public space and a private space, and that religion should be restrained from public power

Secularisation

a theory developed in the 1950s and 1960s - developed from enlightenment thinking that religious beliefs would progressively decline as democracy and technology advanced

• sociologists now doubt such a linear decline

Secular

not connected or associated with religious or spiritual matters

• used colloquially in widely differing ways by atheists, pluralist and those who are anti-religious

• historically, term used to distinguish priests who worked in the world (secular priests) from those who belonged to religious communities, such as monasteries

Wish Fulfilment

According to Freud, wish fulfilment is the satisfaction of a desire through a dream or other exercise of the imagination

Infantile

childish

• Freud - referred to the earliest stage of a person’s development

Neurosis

a mental illness with systems of stress, such as anxiety and obsessive behaviour

Secularism Humanism

belief that humans can live positive good lives without religion

Censorship

suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc, that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security

Facism

a political system based on a vey powerful leader, state control, and being extremely proud of country and race, and in which political opposition is not allowed

Communism

the belief in a society without different social classes in which the methods of production are owned and controlled by all its members, and everyone works as much as they can and receives what they need

Why do Freud and Dawkins claim that religion is bad for society?

infantile, illusory, irrational non-thinking wish fulfilment

What quote does Freud use to describe where religion comes from?

“ignorant childhood days of the human race”

Who believes that religious belief comes from fear of death, not rational thought?

Freud & Dawkins

Who believes that religious belief can be rational?

McGrath

• Aquinas’ 5 ways - God is reasonable and rational

Who converted to religion later in life?

McGrath &

• clearly serious intellectual philosophers who start believing in God because of thinking

Why are Freud and Dawkins wrong to dismiss all religion as irrational and childish?

many religious believers have a sophisticated and rational belief in God - many people turn to religion for purpose, meaning and moral guidance

Who believes that religion can play a role in prejudice and violence?

Dawkins

• encourages you to view those who aren’t in your religion as different - danger and can cause wars

• e.g. The Thirty Years’ War - constituted as a series of terrible conflicts in central Europe filled by religious differences

What is Dawkins quote that describes God in the Old Testament?

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction”

How does McGrath counter Dawkins idea that religion is harmful?

Life of Jesus - role model for Christians and he was loving to everyone no matter who they were or what their background was

• Dawkins unfairly focuses on extremists and fundamentalists

What perspective is McGrath defending when saying religion doesn’t lead to harm?

Sophisticated Liberal Christian perspective - who doesn’t take the prejudiced passages in the Bible literally

What a contemporary example to show that society is not free from harm by religious fundamentalism?

overturning of Roe Vs Wade

How do Dawkins and Harris counter McGrath’s defence of modern christians?

even modern Christians are a problem - they push the idea that faith should be respected and dignified

• this covers for the extremists - who also can argue their faith should be respected

What does Freud believe about religion within society?

cause of neuroses - society’s conflict

• encourages people to follow moral law for the good of society; childish fearfulness of hell is not necessary and can be psychologically harmful

• e.g. Atheistic Countries (Northern Europe) - lowest crime rates, compared to religious countries which have the worst crime rates

How does Jung criticise Freud’s idea that religion is infantile?

instrumental in growth and development into happy individuals

What example does Jung use to prove that religion can be good for us?

e.g. Cain and Abel story - envy can lead us to do terrible things, even murder

• this story helps people not to repress their envy, but to acknowledge it healthily

Is Jung’s optimism about religion been proven more successful than Freud’s pessimism?

yes - modern culture struggles to maintain meaning and purpose in their life without religion

• religion helps us to navigate finding purpose

What quote does McGrath say which describes why humans commit violence?

“Human beings are capable of both violence and moral excellence - and both of these may be provoked by worldviews”

Why can Secular societies be seen just as bad as religious societies?

not valid to judge all religion for its extremists, when non-religious worldviews can be equally provoking of extreminism

Who does Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) use as an example of ‘atheist extremists’?

Nazis

• McGrath - rise of secularism in Germany did not make the society better, it became worse!

What does Hitchens suggest to explain why religion creates issues in society?

religion is not the sole cause or reason for war and conflict - but belief that God is on your side will make you certain that you are right and that you have a right to dominate others (encourages extremism)

• religion is a ‘force multiplier’

How does Bonhoeffer use the idea of the ‘western void’ to support secularism as dangerous?

total secularism leaves only human option

• we need both religion and spiritual values as a source and anchor for human social values

How does Harris support the idea of Secularism as more successful then religious countries?

best countries to live in in terms of markers of social health are some of the most atheistic

• Northern European countries have some of the best in the developed world for low income equality

What does Dawkins believe about faith schools?

faith schools do not teach science proper

• e.g. Islamic school

What quote does Dawkins use to describe how schools should teach their students?

“comparative way according to a national curriculum, not indoctrination”

Why does Dawkins claim bringing up a child in a certain religion was child abuse?

• prevented their development of critical thinking

• terrifying children with the threat of hell

• absurd to call a child communist or right-wing, same absurdity should be held to religion

Does McGrath agree with Dawkins that parents indoctrinating their children to religion is wrong?

Yes - religious belief, like all beliefs, should be subject to evidence-based reasoning and that blind faith is not truly Christian

How many religious people are born into their faith?

90%

How many schools in the UK are faith schools?

1/3

Is Dawkins argument about making children frightened of Hell successful?

Yes - many ex-Christians even need to seek therapy to overcome their fear of going to hell; since it can cause trauma, calling it child abuse is valid

Is Dawkins successful when talking about children being indoctrinated by religion?

Yes - correct about the overall negative influence of religion on society regarding the raising of children

Which scholars would argue that Society would be happier without Christianity?

• Sigmund Freud

• Richard Dawkins

What do Freud and Dawkins advocate for?

secularisation - development of society towards the removal of religion and the promotion of reason through scientific methods

Why do Freud and Dawkins promote secularism?

idea of God is an illusion - result of wish-fulfilment

• Christianity is infantile, repressive and causes conflict

Who is Freud?

athiest psychoanalyst

What did Freud claim that religion causes?

Neuroses

What does Freud believe science will eventually do?

answer all key questions - psychoanalysis will ‘cure’ people of religious belief

What is religion according to Freud?

wish-fulfilment - infantile result of the Oedipus Complex

• at this stage a boy learns he cannot sexually possess his mother and feels jealousy towards his father

• resentment is repressed into the subconscious mind - projected onto the idea of God, the ultimate father figure

What is God according to Freud?

the ultimate father-figure

How does Freud describe religion?

“universal obsessional neurosis”

• religion is unhealthy and leads to negativity within society - religion has been the cause of many of society’s conflicts

What quote does Bertrand Russell use to describe religion?

“religion is a disease born of fear and a source of untold misery to the human race”

Who is Dawkins?

evolutionary biologist known for his rejection of a need of a creator God - give evidence for evolution and increased the understanding of scientific principles

Why does Dawkins believe that unanswered questions about the universe should not be filled with an unsubstantiated belief in God?

instead should be filled with trust that science is on the way to finding the answers

What quote does Dawkins say which criticises using God as an explanation of meaning?

“there is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point”

What are Dawkins three explanations for why religion is problematic for society?

• causes war and conflict

• holds back children

• ignorance

How does religion hold back children according to Dawkins?

form of child abuse

• parents label their children before they can think for themselves

What is Dawkins analogy on Santa Claus?

argument against the promotion of supernatural beliefs to children

• belief in God should be abandoned just as children abandon belief in Santa Claus upon reaching intellectual maturity

How does religion create ignorance according to Dawkins?

problematic that Christians do not believe in science (e.g. evolution and the Big Bang) - world was created literally as an account of the book of Genesis

• evidence suggests otherwise!

What is the “God of the gaps” argument?

religion is irrational because it is the result of scientific ignorance - science is replacing religion

• God used to be the explanation of all natural phenomena (e.g. disease was explained by divine providence or punishment in ancient times)

• as scientific knowledge develops, these natural processes became explained - thereby progressively filling in the gaps where the God explanation had excited

• belief in God is no longer necessary!

How does Alister McGrath responds to Freud and Dawkins ideas?

many reasonable people have converted long after childhood - not infantile

How does Antony Flew respond to Freud and Dawkins ideas?

originally an atheist - converted due to modern design arguments that were based on modern scientific discoveries

• religion cannot just be an irrational belief causes by the indoctrination of children (Dawkins analogy is unsuccessful)

How are Freud and Dawkins criticised?

right in that there are some infantile reasons that some people believe in God - overgeneralisation to think that it’s universal to all religious believers

• ignore other obvious and important motivations for religious belief (e.g. moral guidance)

What would a Secular Humanist propose the role of religion should play in public life?

Christian belief is personal and should play no part in public life

Approximately how many schools in the UK are faith schools?

1/3

Which Scholar directly criticises faith based education?

Dawkins

Why is Dawkins against faith schools?

faith schools are unable to give children a proper unbiased education in science

What happened when Dawkins went to an Islamic faith school?

• student challenged Dawkins perspective on evolution (if people came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?)

• Dawkins decided to ask the biology teacher at the faith school what her answer to the challenge was (both humans and monkeys evolve from a common ancestor)

• the teacher was unable to answer

Is it true that faith schools inadequately teach science?

no - many religions (e.g. Catholicism) universally accept the theories of evolution and the big bang

What is Dawkins quote on how religion should be taught?

“comparative way according to a national curriculum, not indoctrination”

Why does Dawkins claim that bringing up a child into a certain religion was child abuse?

prevented their development of critical thinking - absurd to call a child a communist or right-winged

• thinks it should be seen as similarly absurd to say “Christian child” or “Muslim child”

How does McGrath support Dawkins when describing how parents indoctrinate their children?

religious belief (like all beliefs) should be subject to evidence-based reasoning and that blind faith is not true Christianity

How does McGrath criticise Dawkins for getting lost in the ‘noise of the hyped-up rhetoric’?

claiming that raising a child religious is ‘child abuse’ and claiming we need to break the cycle in order to end religion itself

• assumes that religion is only kept going due to indoctrination, not evidence or argument

What are arguments FOR faith schools?

• only 1/3 of schools are faith schools

• people should be allowed to reflect their religion in their educational choices

• all schools have mission statements and value systems - faith schools are no different

• reflects diversity and tolerance from fundamental British values

• pupils in faith schools are as diverse as the societies they exist in

What are arguments AGAINST faith schools?

• labels children from a young age

• teaching in some areas subject to bias (fundamentalist schools - risk of radicalisation)

• children in faith schools will be unfamiliar with secular society outside

• faith schools only reflect some narrow views

• faith should only be taught by parents and religious communities

Historically does the UK have close ties between Christianity and the State?

Yes

• Church of England - national church, Queen/King is its supreme governor

• some bishops have automatic seats in the House of Lords

Why do many argue that links between Christianity and the State should be separated?

this would reflect the reality of the 21st Century Britain

What is the Romans 13:1 quote regarding the law?

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities”

What are two examples of Countries which have an entirely separate Church and State?

• United States

• France

What can a severely secularised state lead to?

censorship of certain approaches in favour of a different non-religious ideology - still in itself an ideology: could lead to facism and communism

Why would some suggest that we should remove the Christian influence from Government?

Christian elements of the House of Parliaments are ritualistic only and are not necessary to the smooth running of government

• elected House of Lords would be more democratic than the current system, thus removing religious representation from the upper chamber

Why would some suggest that we should not remove the Christian influence from Government?

UK as an entity exists because of its Christian history and traditions - would be wrong to lose this

• representation in the House of Lords helps to safeguard against immoral legislation

What are the strengths in having religion within the government?

• 2002 Amsterdam Declaration - spiritual values = human values

• 10 Commandments - core ethical demands that are universal - do not need religion to follow these

What are the weaknesses regarding autonomy in having religion within the government?

upholding the dignity of life over personal choice and loving your enemies are examples of values that make Christians distinctive

• would not be shared by all - limiting others!

What are the weaknesses in having religion within the government?

no such thing as human values - religion cannot be credited as providing some; globally too diverse