The Challenge of Secularism

Secular & Secularisation

• Secular: Derived from the Latin word secularis, meaning worldly or non-religious.

• Secularisation (General): The idea that religion becomes less and less important in a society.

• Secularisation (Active): The active secularising of society by removing religion and other ideologies from all public institutions (e.g., removing religion from schools).

Types of Secularism

• Procedural Secularism: Includes religion as part of the complex mixture of views citizens of a society may hold.

• Programmatic Secularism: Argues that religion has no place at all in the public life of a society. Any citizen should keep their religious beliefs to themselves.

• Secular Positivism: The idea that scientific reasoning will take over from religion.

Sigmund Freud & Psychological Terms

• Sigmund Freud: An Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis.

• Neuroses: Functional mental disorders such as severe anxiety attacks and irrational fears.

• Illusion: A false idea or belief.

• Wish Fulfilment: The satisfying of unconscious desires in dreams or fantasies.

Science & Humanism

• Richard Dawkins: An academic and evolutionary biologist.

• Secular Humanism: A broad term which describes all those who believe that humans can live good and noble lives according to reason and without the need for religion.

What is Secularisation?

• Definition: The process and idea that religion becomes less and less important in a society.

• The 5 Consequences / Indicators:

  1. Politics: Religion is less influential; politicians rarely use religious arguments in public spaces (e.g., Parliament), treating religion as something for the home.

  2. Ethics: Moral choices are made based on whether they harm others, rather than what God wants.

  3. Beliefs: Fewer people understand Christian teachings (e.g., knowing Christmas celebrates Christ's birth but feeling no practical meaning).

  4. Ceremonies: Attendance drops at church and religious ceremonies, except for weddings and funerals.

  5. Disenchantment: An increasing sense that nothing is magical or supernatural, and that science explains everything mechanically.

• Key Thinker: Max Weber (1864–1920) coined the term "disenchantment" to describe this loss of supernatural mystery.

Programmatic vs. Procedural Secularism

• Programmatic Secularism:

  • Religion has no place in public life.

  • Citizens must keep beliefs entirely private.

• Procedural Secularism:

  • Religion is treated as one part of a complex mix of citizen viewpoints (Atheists, Christians, Buddhists, etc.).

  • The government's job is to consider all ideas without giving extra weight to any single group.

Perspectives on Procedural Secularism

• Rowan Williams (Former Archbishop of Canterbury):

  • Favours procedural secularism because it allows people to acknowledge their own religious beliefs alongside state authority.

  • Argues procedural secularism has always been a Christian idea; Jesus' message encourages Christians to actively participate in public life, not 'privatise' their faith.

• Tony Blair (Former UK Prime Minister):

  • Agrees with Williams on the public role of faith.

  • Stated (2009) that religious faith will be as significant to the 21st century as political ideology was to the 20th, meaning leaders "have to 'do God'" whether they are religious or not.

France & Programmatic Secularism

• Historical Context: A 1905 law officially separated Church and State in France, ensuring religion has no public role.

• Key Modern Flashpoints:

  • 2004: France banned the wearing of any visible religious symbols in state schools.

  • 2010: France banned the niqab (full-face veil) in all public spaces.

Two Reasons for Active Secularisation

• 1. Sociological Evidence: Used to justify removing religion from public life because statistics show it is practiced by fewer people and has lost its privileged place in society.

• 2. Religious Harm: The argument that active secularisation is beneficial because religion can oppose human rights and civilised behaviour.

  • Example: Some argue that the rise of militant Islamism in the West is such a threat to human life that society is safer if religion has no place in public spaces.

Sigmund Freud Overview & Texts

• Who he was: An Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis.

• Scientific Approach: He claimed as a scientist to be able to explain all functions and malfunctions of the mind in purely physical terms.

• Personal Beliefs: He was an atheist but remained deeply fascinated by the development of religion.

• Three Major Works:

  1. Totem and Taboo (1913)

  2. The Future of an Illusion (1927)

  3. Moses and Monotheism (1939)

Religion as a Neurosis and Illusion

• Initial View vs. Final Stance: Freud sometimes noted religion could help control destructive subconscious forces, but his overarching conclusions were highly negative.

• Comparison to Neurosis: He viewed Church rituals (like taking the Sacraments) as similar to neuroses, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. He believed people became addicted to these repetitive actions due to a form of mental illness.

• The Famous Quote: "Religion is comparable to childhood neurosis" from The Future of an Illusion.

• Political Stance: Because religion is an illusion, Freud would have supported programmatic secularism, believing religion should play no part in public decision-making.

Religion as an Infantile Illusion

• The Secular Viewpoint: Strict secularists argue religion is a primitive belief system that humanity will eventually outgrow.

• Childish Comparisons: Belief in God is compared to historical myths (like Thor controlling thunder) or childhood beliefs like fairies and Father Christmas.

• 19th-Century Progress Narrative: Freud shared the view that humanity progresses from the "childish stories" of religion toward the maturity, sophistication, and enlightenment offered by science.

Religion as Wish Fulfilment (Nature and Instincts)

• Core Concept: Freud argued that illusions are "derived from human wishes". God persists because the human desire for protection and comfort cancels out doubts.

• Three things humans wish to control:

  1. External Forces of Nature: Humans invent divine beings to defend against natural terrors like floods and earthquakes. Religion promises that all hardships will be obliterated and compensated in an afterlife.

  2. Internal Forces of Nature: Humans face internal conflicts regarding dark instincts (e.g., aggression, incest, murder). Religion acts like a internal "garrison in a conquered city" to suppress these dangerous desires by offering a conscience and promising future rewards for compliance.

Religion as Wish Fulfilment (The Father Figure)

• 3. Longing for a Father Figure:

  • Childhood is marked by a deep sense of helplessness, which is comforted by the protection of a literal father.

  • In adulthood, humans face that same helplessness but no longer have their father's protection.

  • To cope, adults project God as a supreme father figure to recreate the comfort and safety they experienced in youth.

• Freud's Conclusion: The origin of religious attitude is traced entirely back to this infantile helplessness and the longing for a father. Therefore, God is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Evaluation – Is Freud Right?

• Critique of "Infantile" Religion:

  • Progress is not inevitable: The 20th century showed that scientific progress can be used for destruction (war, genocide, atomic bombs), dealing a blow to the idea that society naturally progresses past God.

  • Atheism doesn't equal good behavior: Atheistic regimes like Stalin's were deeply evil.

  • Lack of philosophical engagement: Freud supposes religion is false but ignores rational arguments for God's existence from sophisticated thinkers like Descartes and Leibniz.

• Defense of Sacraments: Ritual repetition does not automatically equal neurotic compulsion; it can be an expression of love, much like a mother hugging her child daily. Christians view it as a "visible sign of invisible grace".

• Wishful Thinking as Positive: Optimism and a "God-given point to life" can make believers happier, more fulfilled, and motivated to help others.

• Religion as a Force for Good: In The Future of an Illusion, Freud admits religion offers real consolation, certainty, and order. It has also been a major vehicle for positive social change.

Richard Dawkins – Religion as a Dangerous Delusion

• Core Claim: Religion lacks rationality, is based on blind faith, and relies on a "teapot-circling-the-sun" level of reasoning (referencing Bertrand Russell).

• Key Book: The Selfish Gene (1976) popularized his evolutionary views; The God Delusion attacks religious belief directly.

• Why it is Dangerous: It causes wars, blocks scientific progress, and prompts creationists to reject evolution in favor of a literal Bible interpretation. Dawkins highlights 9/11 as a key consequence of religion.

• Famous Quote: "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."

Dawkins – Indoctrination and Abuse

• Mental and Psychological Abuse: Dawkins argues that teaching children about hell, damnation, and divine judgment causes severe psychological trauma.

• Child Abuse: He considers raising children within a religious belief system as a form of indoctrination and child abuse, particularly when it contradicts modern science.

• The Quote from The God Delusion: A letter from a woman states that being fondled by a priest left an impression of being "yucky," but the fear of going to hell (instilled by religion) caused "cold, immeasurable fear" and lifelong nightmares.

Evaluation – Is Dawkins Right?

• Historical Counter-Examples: Religion has motivated immense good, such as the abolition of slavery, the founding of hospitals/schools, and the creation of charities like the Red Cross/Red Crescent and the Hospice movement.

• Faith is Not a Delusion: The Church argues that belief is grounded in rational choice and logic (e.g., Cosmological, Teleological, and Moral Arguments), not a "leap in the dark".

• Science and Religion Co-existence: Thinkers like M.B. Foster and Alvin Plantinga argue that science requires a rational creator God to underpin the intelligibility and laws of the universe. Evolution alone cannot explain why the universe is understandable.

• Is Atheism Safer? Stalin's officially atheistic regime persecuted believers and produced massive suffering. Just as science can be turned into tools of evil (e.g., Nazi Germany), any belief system—religious or secular—can be corrupted.

Secular Humanism & The Faith Schools Debate

• Secular Humanism Definition: A belief that humans can live good, noble, and ethical lives according to reason, without relying on religion or higher spiritual powers.

• The Secular Argument: Humanists argue that Christianity should not have significant influence over education/schools and government/state. They state that faith schools fragment society.

Arguments FOR Religious Schools

Democratic Choice: It is undemocratic to deny parents the option to educate children in line with their values.

High Performance: Religious schools are popular and often perform better than secular counterparts.

Reduces Tax Burden: The Church funds a portion (e.g., 10%) of the school costs, reducing the burden on the state.

Diversity of Choice: They increase choices for parents and often admit non-religious children.

No "Value-Free" Schools: Non-religious schools still have their own secular value sets; religious values shouldn't be forced out.

Arguments AGAINST Religious Schools

• Radicalisation Risk: They are dangerous and can become breeding grounds for radicalisation.

• Anti-Science: Some schools are anti-science and teach evolution as a myth.

• Promotes Intolerance: They can teach that other faiths are evil or mistaken, breeding fear, mistrust, and hatred.

• Public Funding Issue: Secular/non-religious taxpayers should not have their money used to fund religious institutions.

• International Examples: In the US, the state does not fund religious schools, yet faith remains a powerful force there.

Secular Assumptions on Government and State

• The Private Matter View: Many secularists assume faith is a purely private matter and should not interfere with public matters of state, which must be decided by reason and law.

• The "Public Arena" Boundary: While individuals can practice religion at home, once they enter the public arena (politics, schools, hospitals), they should not talk about their religion or its beliefs.

• Impact on Politicians: This cultural pressure makes secular politicians highly reluctant to "talk God" in public spaces.

Case Study – Tony Blair and "Doing God"

• The Gag on Religion: While serving as UK Prime Minister at Number 10, Tony Blair's senior advisors actively intervened to prevent him from discussing his faith in public.

• Alastair Campbell's Intervention: Blair’s director of strategy and communications, Alastair Campbell, famously cut off a question about Blair's Christianity by interrupting: "We don't do God".

• Voter Backlash Fear: Advisors feared public talk of religion would cause trouble with voters. Blair later noted: "It's difficult if you talk about religious faith in our political system... frankly, people think you're a nutter".

Case Study – Tim Farron's Public Controversy

• The Context: Tim Farron, an evangelical Christian, served as the leader of the Liberal Democrats until 2017.

• The Campaign Inquiry: During a General Election campaign, he was repeatedly questioned and quizzed by the media on whether he believed gay sex was a sin.

• The BBC Interview: To salvage his reputation during the row, he told the BBC's Eleanor Garnier that he did not believe gay sex was a sin, adding that political leaders should not "pontificate on theological matters".

• The Resignation: Following an internal party coup a few days after the June General Election, Farron resigned, stating at the time that "remaining faithful to Christ" was incompatible with leading his party.

Tim Farron's Admission and Regret

• The U-Turn: In a later interview with Premier Christian Radio, Farron admitted he had misled the public and that his earlier statements to the BBC were not true. He confirmed he does believe gay sex is sinful.

• Pressure to Conform: When asked if he felt pressured to change his message during the election, he replied, "Yeah. The bottom line is, of course I did".

• Compromising Faith: Farron expressed deep regret for "foolishly and wrongly" attempting to push the issue away by giving an untrue answer, noting he felt trapped between compromising his faith and distracting from his party's main message.

Farron's Theological Explanation of Sin

• The Nature of Sin: Farron clarified his view by stating that to a Christian, sin means "us falling short of the glory of God," which is something "that all of us share".

• Not Meant as Persecution: He argued that being accused of calling something a sin is viewed by the public as condemnation or persecution of a specific group.

• The Communication Gap: He concluded that it is highly problematic to explain Biblical teachings on sex and sexuality in public life because secular society and Christian theology speak completely "different languages".

Debate – Should Christianity Play a Part in Public Life?

• Arguments FOR ("Yes"):

  • Rowan Williams & Tony Blair: Procedural secularism allows citizens to acknowledge religious beliefs alongside state authority. Leaders, whether religious or not, must "do God".

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Rejscted the divide between private and public life. He argued there are not two realities but only "God's reality revealed in Christ". This justifies civil disobedience against immoral state orders (e.g., resisting Hitler).

  • Freud (Alternative Argument): Acknowledged religion provides real consolation and serves as a vehicle for social change, meaning it can improve lives within society.

• Arguments AGAINST ("No"):

  • Freud & Dawkins: Religion is anti-rational, an infantile illusion compared to childhood neurosis, or a product of wishful thinking akin to believing in Russell's celestial teapot.

  • Secular Humanism: Argues that Christianity lacks special insight into society's challenges and should be removed from public arenas, specifically education and politics.

  • Programmatic Secularists: Propose removing faith from public education, stating religious schools promote intolerance and risk radicalisation.

Sociological Perspectives – Is Secularisation Happening?

• The Difficulty of Proof: Tracking church attendance statistics is complex. A decline in church membership in one region does not prove religion is declining everywhere.

• Scientism Challenge: Some secularists treat science as the absolute way to truth (Scientism). However, physics and biology often conflict on foundational truths, and science fails to explain non-material experiences like music appreciation or sports.

• Alternative Sociological Theories:

  • David Martin: Argues that as one traditional religious group declines, others take its place (e.g., the flourish of Pentecostalism in South America). Religion is endlessly inventive in how it reconstructs itself.

  • Sacralisation Thesis (Peter Berger): Rejects the secularisation thesis, stating the world is "as furiously religious as it ever was". Examples include the rise of the pro-pluralism, pro-democracy Islamic movement Nudhat'ul-Ulama in Indonesia, and surging Evangelical Christianity in Central and South America.

Evaluation – Is Programmatic Secularism Acceptable?

• Christian Acceptance of Procedural Secularism: Christians generally support a state that listens to diverse religious and non-religious views. Christ did not seek to overthrow the state, entering Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a warhorse.

• The Case Against Programmatic Secularism:

  • Enforced Privatisation: Forcing religious views out of public life is undemocratic. Disallowing a religious argument in parliament (e.g., the Church's stance that life is a gift from God, opposing euthanasia) silences sound, rational belief systems.

  • The Trans-Religious Appeal: Secularists demand that arguments be converted into "purely human values". Believers can adapt to this by using neutral arguments (e.g., framing euthanasia as a "slippery slope").

  • Shared Rationality: The Church believes humans are made in God's image and endowed with natural reason, meaning religious and non-religious people can arrive at good moral choices together without losing the meaning of their values.

What is Rationality? (The Secular Danger)

• The Christian Definition: The Church teaches that a core of human understanding and rationality exists in all people, whether they attend church or not.

• Max Weber’s Critique: Early secularists envisioned a world driven purely by technology, calculation, and efficiency. Weber warned this creates a sinister, mechanistic society devoid of spirit and ideas—reducing people to cogs in a machine (parodied in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times).

• The "Iron Cage": Weber coined this term to describe a modern workplace and social life entirely dominated by utilitarian, mechanical institutions. This dystopian vision of a completely mechanized society is echoed in films like The Matrix and Terminator.

• The Religious Safeguard: Without the concept of being made in the image of God, society defaults to evaluating humans solely by their economic usefulness on a production line. Religious faith serves as a vital safeguard against this brutal, utilitarian future.

Alister McGrath & Critique of Dawkins

• Key Person: Alister McGrath (1953–) is a professor of science and religion at Oxford University, a scientist (biochemist/biophysicist), theologian, and Anglican priest. He wrote The Dawkins Delusion? (2007) with his wife, Joanna Collicutt McGrath.

• Targeting Extremes: Dawkins targets extreme fundamentalist Christians who reject evolution and claim the world is only 6,000 years old. McGrath argues it is unfair to reject all Christian beliefs based on a few extreme believers who are prominent in the USA but not the norm globally.

• Reason and Faith: Unlike Dawkins, most Christians do not believe faith is irrational or independent of reason. Reason is necessary to test beliefs, but faith ultimately makes a leap to the transcendent. Rational things can be believed without categorical proof.

McGrath's Refutations of Dawkins

• Complexity: Dawkins is right to criticize the "God of the gaps" argument (using God to explain what science cannot yet grasp). However, the alternative is not necessarily atheism; an intelligible, complex universe scientifically points to a greater intelligence, showing God and religion are not in conflict.

• Metaphysics: Dawkins argues like a positivist, viewing answers to life's meaning outside scientific inquiry as meaningless. Many scientists reject this view, noting that theology and philosophy offer valuable insights into ultimate questions.

• NOMA (Non-Overlapping Magisteria): Dawkins' biased analysis forgets that science and religion have a complementary relationship, reflecting different aspects of human experience (the material and the spiritual).

• Violence and Atheism: While Dawkins highlights religious harm, violence is not a necessary condition of religion—Jesus explicitly taught against it. Cruelty and suffering can equally be aimed at atheism (e.g., crimes committed under communist regimes).

Objections to Secularisation – Charles Taylor

• Key Person: Charles Taylor (1931–) is a Canadian philosopher, a practicing Roman Catholic, and a former professor at McGill University. He wrote Sources of the Self (1989) and A Secular Age (2007).

• The Shift in Belief: Taylor asks why it was virtually impossible not to believe in God in Western society in the year 1500, yet in 2000, belief is viewed as an option.

• "Subtraction Stories": He rejects the dominant secular narrative that secularisation simply removed religion to reveal an underlying, natural human nature. These stories (told by thinkers like Comte, Freud, and Dawkins) lead to an unsatisfactory "self-sufficing humanism".

• Why Humanism Fails:

  1. It breaks down the communal aspect of society by overemphasizing the individual.

  2. God is not a phase of history we outgrew; Western history is out of kilter with the dominant world narrative, as most human history has experienced a sense of the divine as an essential aspect of life.

Objections to Secularisation – Terry Eagleton

• Key Person: Terry Eagleton (1943–) is a prominent literary and cultural theorist, Marxist, and Christian. He is a professor at Lancaster University and wrote Why Marx Was Right (2011).

• Marxism & Secularism: Eagleton believes Marx was wrong to completely eliminate religion because it contributes deeply to human existence. He is suspicious of secularism because it is tied to secular capitalism.

• Cultural Importance: Religion has vastly enriched human culture through art, architecture, literature, and music. Secularists mistakenly think these can survive without religion, but only religion captures the highest spiritual aspect of the human experience.

• "Largely Doomed": Secularism cannot replace what religion captures. Religion touches on deep, enduring truths that billions of ordinary people have been prepared to die for; secularism, sport, or aesthetic values cannot replicate this level of devotion and sacrifice.

Eagleton on Western Capitalism & 9/11

• The Root Cause of Secularism: Eagleton argues the real engine of secularism is not Dawkins' positivism, but the way Western secular capitalism has privatised everything, pushing morality and religion out of the public sphere as irrelevant.

• The Lesson of 9/11: The events of 9/11 showed that a positivist dream of a world without religion is completely wrong. Fundamentalist extremism can appear as a highly toxic form of violence, but its source is anxiety caused by Western secularists spreading an anti-religious message worldwide.

• Two Extremes of Anxiety: 9/11 exposed two flawed, anxious extremes:

  1. Faithless Western secular atheism and its fearful reaction (the "war on terror").

  2. Faithful religious fundamentalism.

  • Conclusion: Both secularism and religious fundamentalism are equally flawed.