Whats the real meaning of secularism?

Question

"No respect for any religion" or "Equal respect respect of all religion"

Answer 1

I wish your view was true. The mechanistic naturalism of some supposedly educated men and the thoughtless secularism of the man in the street are both exclusively concerned with things; they are barren of all real values, sanctions, and satisfactions of a spiritual nature, as well as being devoid of faith, hope, and eternal assurances. One of the great troubles with modern life is that man thinks he is too busy to find time for spiritual meditation and religious devotion.

P.2081 - §1

"But even after materialism and mechanism have been more or less vanquished, the devastating influence of twentieth-century secularism will still blight the spiritual experience of millions of unsuspecting souls.

Modern secularism has been fostered by two world-wide influences. The father of secularism was the narrow-minded and godless attitude of nineteenth- and twentieth-century so-called science--atheistic science. The mother of modern secularism was the totalitarian medieval Christian church. Secularism had its inception as a rising protest against the almost complete domination of Western civilization by the institutionalized Christian church.

At the time of this revelation, the prevailing intellectual and philosophical climate of both European and American life is decidedly secular--humanistic. For three hundred years Western thinking has been progressively secularized. Religion has become more and more a nominal influence, largely a ritualistic exercise. The majority of professed Christians of Western civilization are unwittingly actual secularists.

It required a great power, a mighty influence, to free the thinking and living of the Western peoples from the withering grasp of a totalitarian ecclesiastical domination. Secularism did break the bonds of church control, and now in turn it threatens to establish a new and godless type of mastery over the hearts and minds of modern man. The tyrannical and dictatorial political state is the direct offspring of scientific materialism and philosophic secularism. Secularism no sooner frees man from the domination of the institutionalized church than it sells him into slavish bondage to the totalitarian state. Secularism frees man from ecclesiastical slavery only to betray him into the tyranny of political and economic slavery.

Materialism denies God, secularism simply ignores him; at least that was the earlier attitude. More recently, secularism has assumed a more militant attitude, assuming to take the place of the religion whose totalitarian bondage it onetime resisted. Twentieth-century secularism tends to affirm that man does not need God. But beware! this godless philosophy of human society will lead only to unrest, animosity, unhappiness, war, and world-wide disaster.

Secularism can never bring peace to mankind. Nothing can take the place of God in human society. But mark you well! do not be quick to surrender the beneficent gains of the secular revolt from ecclesiastical totalitarianism. Western civilization today enjoys many liberties and satisfactions as a result of the secular revolt. The great mistake of secularism was this: In revolting against the almost total control of life by religious authority, and after attaining the liberation from such ecclesiastical tyranny, the secularists went on to institute a revolt against God himself, sometimes tacitly and sometimes openly.

To the secularistic revolt you owe the amazing creativity of American industrialism and the unprecedented material progress of Western civilization. And because the secularistic revolt went too far and lost sight of God and true religion, there also followed the unlooked-for harvest of world wars and international unsettledness.

It is not necessary to sacrifice faith in God in order to enjoy the blessings of the modern secularistic revolt: tolerance, social service, democratic government,  

Answer 2

Rawls in "Political Liberalism" argues that membership in any particular religious or philosophical group is incidental but membership in a society is not; therefore any law should be reasonable to any citizen regardless of religious of philosophical background.

Going by that portrayal, secularism's attitude toward religion (or atheism) is one of acceptance but not favouritism.

Answer 3

There is no simple answer as meaning is subjective. Secularism has no direct bearing on religion per se but how religion is incorporated. None of the above definitions can adequately explain secularism, as secularism has no direct correlation with religion.

Secularism is separation of Church and State. It certainly by default incorporates freedom of religion for everyone, and everyone is free to practice their religion freely. Secularism is complete elimination of religion from politics, government and its any impact on any institutions.

The fundamental goal is to eliminate any religious influence among politics and government decision making. Religion in any sense must not have any direct bearing on how the country is run.

US constitution is good example:

Amendment I >

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

"...the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."

~ Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11 - officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on 10 June, 1797

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”

~ President Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, January 1, 1802

Answer 4

Dr. Y makes a good case. Most of the Founders of the U.S. were Deist, meaning they devoutly believed in God but just as vehemently disagreed with organized religion. The fact that "the wall of separation between church and state" is not in the Constitution in those words, does not mean they are not there. Jefferson argued that the 2nd Amendment was intended to work in both directions, keeping religion out of the affairs of government, and the Supreme Court used his words to get to the Original Intent, in 1847, of just what the Constitution meant.

Naturalism was a "given" for the Deists, meaning they believed the universe worked by the "laws of nature and of nature's god," and didn't need the interference of Man to keep them going, nor the constant watchful eye of god, who, they said, made the world then retired--so to speak. But he didn't retire before giving Man the power of Reason, which is one reason the Deists were so devoutly attached to God.

But they knew from prior experience and from history what happens when a nation allows one religious sect to gain political dominance. Jefferson was most proud, all his life, of having been the architect of the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom.

"Where the preamble [to the Act] declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."

Naturalism is still secular in its nature, looking only for the scientific answer and not interested in starting religious wars.

My own site deals with naturalism, and the 2nd part of a series on secularity was posted just today.

My site: Thank you very much for looking at it. http://freeassemblage.blogspot.com/

Answer 5

It has been argued what the meaning of secularism truly is, so I believe that it may just depend on what your opinion is and how you see it. Secularism does, I think, consist of both meanings.