Secularism

Freud

‘so patently infantile, so foreign to reality’ (Civilisation and its Discontents')

• “mass delusion”

• wish fulfilment

• rules and principles of religion = contradictions and falsehoods of ancestors, = opinion =/= sacred truths

• division

• discoruages free thought

  • 'Religion’s 11th commandment is , ‘Thou shalt not question’ ‘ (The Future of an Illusion)

Eduard von Hartmann

‘It is perfectly true that nothing exists merely because we wish it, but it is not true that something cannot exist if we wish it’

Richard Dawkins

• faith = non-thinking

• e.g. Rev Paul Hill shot and killed abortionist doctor claiming actions backed by holy scripture

• e.g. 9/11

• sanctity of life limiting access to abortion

  • George W Bush oversaw >1/3 executions in USA but prevented medical research on embryonic life

education

• religious fundamentalism subverts science

• Concerned evolution taught as theory alongside creationism

• 'Fundamentalist religion is hell-bent on ruining the scientific education of countless thousands of innocent, well-meaning eager young minds' (Dawkins, the God Delusion)

culture

• King James Bible of 1611 important influence

Keith Ward ‘Is Religion Dangerous?’

‘It is not religion that causes intolerance. It is intolerance that uses religion’

Professor Alister McGrath

‘The Dawkins Delusion’

• actions of religious shouldn’t cause condemnation of religion itself

Jo Marchant

• science journalist

• social connections and belief in transcendent = very important features for happier and longer life

Dr Laura Wallace, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

• studies show that churchgoers = < likely to smoke, drink and take drugs

Examples of C responsible for social change

• 19th cent, churches established schools for poor in England

• American Bishops instrumental in decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1960s

• civil rights activist challenging segregation in USA e.g. Martin Luther King Jr

• food banks

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

• programmatic vs procedural secularism

  • false neutrality in programmatic, as silences certain voices in favour of particular ideology

British Humanist Association

• campaign against religious character in schools

• ‘For an inclusive, secular school system

church = biggest sponsors of schools

>1.8mil children educated in C of England and catholic schools in England

Warwick religious and education research unit

evidence that young C > +ve attitude to religious diversity

Charles Taylor ‘The Politics of Recognition’

religious schools helping nurture diversity

Christopher Dawson

• secular education systems = problematic

• given extent to which culture seeped into religion

Government and religion

• British monarch = Head of C of Eng = Defender of faith

  • Anglican Bishops in House of Lords

  • Prince → King Charles = Defender of faith, not the faith

  • Theresa May: faith helped her make decisions

• France: laicite ensures religion absent from gov and state

• Japanese Emperor viewed as God in WWII

  • when defeated, had to declare wasn’t

Auguste Comte

society develops from theological to metaphysical and to positive (scientific) view of world

secular positivism

Peter Berger

• ST focused on west

• global picture v different

  • e.g. fertility rates in islam and catholocism

• secularisation on societal level not linked to individual level

Terry Eagleton

religion = needed and valuable

people prepared to die for religion = special, crucial, irreplaceable

David Ford

• ‘unpredictability of a drama’ = shouldn’t think of development of world in linear way

• secular atheism not necessarily good

  • atheist ideology have led to terrible atrocities

Linda Woodhead

‘spiritual but not religious’

spirituality to fill void left by established Christianity

religion = changing, not declining

2021 census

• 1st time <1/2 population = Christian

Dr Adam Rutherford

pres of Humanists UK

• decline in religion not '“absence of values”

• life meaningful itself

2002 Amsterdam Declaration

• list of core values

  • ethics, rationality, human rights, social responsibility, fulfilment and importance of creativity

Berger

ST: religious institutions would adapt and decline = wrong

• instead survived and flourished

Kwame Appiah

openness and scriptures subject to interpretation = blessing not burden

David Ford

• 30 Years’ War conflicts in Central Europe fuelled by religious difference

  • led to minimal secularism

  • made space for religious minorities