secularism Flashcards
different types of secularism
archbishop rowan Williams: made distinction between programmatic secularism and procedural secularism
- procedural - idea that the role of the state is to take into account the interests of all its citizens and we all should be treated equally so this doesn’t discount religion from the public square
- programmatic - the more radical of the two argues that the role of the state in a poor society is to be purely secular and this completely discount religion from the public square
- would stop christians being able to voice opinions and practice missionary work
- which the bible claims is essential as Matthew said ‘go and make disciples of all nations’, so programmatic undermines christian beliefs
the principle of la laïcité (the official separation of Church and State) has prevailed in France since 1905. The official French position is that only programmatic secularism can maintain the nation’s core values.
As such public spaces should be cleared of religion and be “neutral”
“neutrality” is false as it ultimately silences certain voices in favour of a certain ideology
williams argues procedural - says the role of the church is to proclaim the gospel, not govern
Arguably, Christians could better practice their religion when that practice is limited to being in private. In that case, there could be no confusion that engaging in worship might yield worldly rewards, whether legal, social or otherwise.
many Christians argue that programmatic secularism is itself
anti-democratic, as it actively removes the historical place of Christianity from all public institutions. Procedural secularism, on the other hand, is not anti-democratic as it offers the Church the opportunity to be fully engaged in society and contribute to making secularism a success by offering the widest set of opportunities for all its citizens, religious and non-religious.
dawkins - irrational
christianity = irrational because evolution has disproved creationism (theory of evolution provides a logical and plausible explanation for the existence of the universe)
insists that all beliefs should be subject to rational inquiry to prevent absurdities like belief in a “Flying Spaghetti Monster.”
keith ward - faith is not necessarily independent from reason - it makes leap into the trascedent
- indeed, however rational one is, everyone believes something without being able to prove it categorically (eg. dreams) - evidence only works within system that you have already set up
+ existence for any universe like this one is highly improbable (unless there exists a being)
- science and religion do not have to be in conflict - the universe being scientifically intelligible could point to a greater intelligence - God
many reasonable people have converted to religion long after childhood, such as himself and the philosopher Antony Flew, who changed his mind due to modern design arguments that were based on modern scientific discoveries. So, religion cannot just be an irrational belief
Perhaps, the two are areas of completely seperate inquiry and do not threaten eachother. Gould would argue that science and religion occupy “non-overlapping magisteria”, with science addressing questions of fact and religion addressing questions of meaning.- the supernatural world is of a completely different kind from the material world, and so it cannot be subject to rational scientific inquiry
dawkins - indocrination
- religion is a harmful force in the world
religion = child abuse - stops children choosing what to believe in, so indoctrinates them to limited way of thinking - points to hell houses in USA - haunted attractions typically run by evangelical Protestant churches or parachurch organizations designed to act as moral instruction.
BUT can accuse every parent of indoctrination, even atheists - everyone who interacts with young children are inadvertently placing a set of beliefs onto them
hitchens - religion has historically been a source of conflict, oppression, and irrationality
- religious beliefs have been used to justify atrocities
alister mcgrath - - violence is not a condition of religion (eg. Jesus specifically taught pacifism and rejected violence)
- many atheist ideologies have cause human suffering too (eg. communist regimes) - Dawkins however does not accept that violence is a necessary condition of atheism
McGrath responds that anti-theists like Dawkins unfairly criticises religion for its fundamentalists, as if they were representative of all religious people
Harris argues that the number of fundamentalists is worryingly high, for example a quarter of Americans think Jesus will come back in their lifetime.
Harris further responds that even moderate religious belief deserves criticism. They dignify the idea of having faith, which makes it harder to criticise with those who have faith in a fundamentalist view of religion.
Pinker - Christianity responsible for violence, suffering and debasement of humanity until the post-Enlightenment period
Irrational superstitions – eg Fall, Original Sin and grace
replaced by humanitarian principle
Humanitarian principle in West has led to rapid decline of capital punishment, torture in judicial system, wars of religion, abuse of women, tyrants and despotic leaders
2010 debate between Blair and Hitchens, Blair argues for the positive impact of religion on society, emphasising its role in providing moral guidance, fostering community cohesion, and inspiring acts of charity and altruism
- charitable work and philanthropy inspired by religious beliefs
eagleton - only religion can capture the highest spiritual aspect of human experience.
faith schools + institutions
secularism does pose a threat in the sense that it calls for christian aspects to be removed from institutions
- eg British humanist association campaigns against faith schools bc they segregate children causing intolerance for others’ beliefs = exclusive breeding grounds for narrow minded prejudice, fostering intolerance at best
- 1/3 of schools in uk are faith schools, and if these were removed from our society, that is a large amount of children being educated in the absence of christian beliefs that were once part of curriculum - so increasing threat of secularism
- phasing out faith schools would take away some options from religious parents in terms of educating their children in a faith
people can cope with the challenge by organising religious instruction outside of school but they’re in a home or in the church or even paying for private education
Arguably, putting the responsibility for planning and overseeing the process of educating children in a faith back onto parents (and Churches) would cause them to take a greater interest in the efficacy of the process in terms of forming faith
passive secularisation
traditional rites of passage like marriages and funerals are now more commonly performed in secular rather than religious setting
it appears that fewer people in Europe and in even in the USA attend Christian forms of worship than in the past, so religion is clearly in decline
o Societies have experienced periods of secularism before and emerged more religious afterwards
As Charles Taylor argues, for the whole of world history humans have regarded the divine as an essential aspect of life, and that secular humanism is simply a phase that we need to steer ourselves away from.
It is not that we have suddenly discovered that God doesn’t exist, but rather that this is a phase of Western history which is out of kilter with the dominant historical world narrative.
‘subtraction stories’. Simply put, these are the stories we now use to argue for the truth of secularisation by removing religion as if that is the obvious thing to do. We have outgrown religion, and religion’s narrative has been succeeded by new ‘stories’ principally put forward by the great Masters of Suspicion
ensures that what the various Christian churches teach has to adapt and be relevant to the needs of society
freud/marx/feuerbach
freud - It is a form of wish fulfilment, we idolise our parents to a god like level but they let us down since they are human, so people view God as a perfect parent
the child identifies with a parent of the same sex, but if there is trauma, an infantile neurosis is created where we desire a perfect parent
religion causes conflict and divisions by causing people to repress these desires
Feuerbach- humans project themselves onto the idea of God (we ascribe human values to him which can lead to alienation)
Charles Taylor, religion is not a system of lies and wish fulfilment but a form of identity and culture
- Even if people don’t agree with it, it still has a place in British society as people’s identity, all people need equal recognition, and as a form of identity, Christianity does have a place
marx - Religion is the opiate of the masses, provides reasons for and excuses to keep society functioning by exploitation
James Conroy, religion (in form of religious schools in particular) has important role in liberal, democratic state, religion challenges idea that people are just cogs in machine of economy (religion transcends capitalism, science doesn’t)
ratzinger
Ratzinger’s argument has another more successful element to it which involves what is a classic critique of atheism. It wasn’t atheism per se that inspired Hitler or Stalin, it was the void of moral guidance left in our culture by getting rid of God that led to Hitler and Stalin who represented an outpouring of unrestrained humanity’s worst impulses. Therefore, we need religious values for moral guidance and to constrain our sinful nature. Atheism drags society and culture down towards moral nihilism.
Harris responds: “If religion were necessary for morality, there should be some evidence that atheists are less moral than believers”
habermas - “Religious traditions have a ‘public role’ in deliberating moral and ethical issues in a secular society.”
advocating for a post-secular society where secular and religious perspectives coexist and engage in dialogue.
