The Issue of Secularism

• The concept of secularism has transformed considerably in recent decades from its original definition as the separation of church and state.
• a western secular ideal that religion and worldly affairs should be separate
• the ripple effect of militant Islamism on western consciousness reconsidered the fact of more strenuous efforts should be made to exclude all religions from public life
• Secularism is the belief that religion should play no role in the running of the state, government affairs, or public life
• Secularists don't claim that religious beliefs are wrong, but that they should remain private
• Procedural Secularism = takes into account the interests of everyone, it doesn't give priority/preference to religion
• Programmatic Secularism = the role of the state is to be purely secular, all religious views & practices should be excluded
• both forms of secularism (programmatic & procedural) imply different value-judgements about religion
• procedural doesn't 'discount' religion from the public square whereas programmatic does
• AO2: When does procedural secularism become a form of programmatic secularism ?
• AO2: if religions are to 'translate their concerns' into non-religious and 'universal' values, do they remain the same values?
• Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, favours procedural secularism as it allows people to acknowledge the authority of their own religious beliefs as well as the authority of the state
• Williams argues that procedural secularism has been a Christian idea from the start, Secularism is a welcome challenger to the Church
• closely linked to programmatic secularism is secularisation, an active secularising of society by removing religion and other ideologies
• Secularisation can also refer to the erosion of religion's social and cultural significance over time
• Sociological Harm = used to justify the removal of religion from public sphere as it has ceased to have a privileged place in society
• Religious Harm = active secularisation is beneficial because of religion's opposition to human rights & civilised behaviour
• Secularisation thesis is a term used to describe the growing number of people who have no affiliation with religion, a decline over 100 years
• Secularisation is a highly controversial issue because of the difficulty of pinning down what it actually is
• Measuring & Defining = the number of people in the US who said they had 'no religious preference' doubled, but many of these said they still prayed or believed in God
• Influence & Authority = how much influence does the CofE have on Britain? Society isn't becoming more secular, mainstream religions & formal institutions have declined
• Religious Commitment =In the past, people were more religiously committed, people who attend Church do so because they want to
• while the secularisation thesis is disputable, it's true that Christian influence has declined in the west
• Auguste Comte held the belief that civilised society develops from theological to the metaphysical and finally, the positive
• Comte believed that religion would give way to secular positivism, the power of scientific reasoning would falsify views of the world
• His (Comte) view supports arguments of liberalism; we live happier, more just lives without the superstition of religion
• Sigmund Freud : believed that neuroses (functional mental disorders) were the result of humane instinctual fulfilments oppressed by tradition & conformity
• Freud considered that religion, notably Judaism & Christianity, were a primary cause of psychological illness
• His (Freud) primary claim was that religion belongs to the infantile or early stage of human development
• Freud considered that his use of psychoanalysis would show that religion is a sickness, which can badly infect individuals and societies
• He (Freud) argues that in the future, reason will prevail; religion will end. Only then will humans be able to live truly content lives
• the "sweet-faced woman"

  a boy lost his religion after seeing the dead woman, only to get his faith back shortly after. Freud linked this with the Oedipus complex, the boy was mad at God. His voices, once repressed, told him to be obedient to his father. Therefore, his religious conversion was just a wish fulfilment to restore a sense of security
• Freud argues, in his book The Future of an Illusion, that religion has been one of the most powerful & effective means of overcoming human fears of death & suffering caused by human civilisations
• Religion provides comfort through its ritual and worship, just as little children find comfort living in a disciplined life imposed by parents
• Freud says the repetition of worship & prayer is obsessional as it keeps ego from being controlled by sexual and irrational urges
• Religion, to Freud, is a 'universal obsessional neurosis'
• while Freud said that religion may do some good, for society to grow up rationally, religion should be abolished
• A02: Freud wanted to explain everything in material terms, Keith Ward says reductionism is hardly an adequate explanation for the spiritual & religious experiences people have
• AO2: despite Freud's deep suspicion of religion and culture, there is some evidence to indicate he wasn't wholly critical of mystical experiences (Romain Rolland)
• A02: For some, religion gives one a spiritually deeper and richer appreciation of life and the world