Religion in a Secular Society: What Place or Role can Religion Have?

[pinto]

Religion in a Secular Society: What Place or Role can Religion Have?

There is No Suppression of Religion or Faith in a Secular Society
By Austin Cline

If secularism opposes the public support of religion or the presence of ecclesiastical authorities simultaneously exercising public authority, what role is left for religion in a secular society? Is religion doomed to a slow decline and attrition? Is it relegated to a web of quaint but unimportant cultural traditions? Such are the fears of opponents to secularism and secularization who argue that religion is too important to be eliminated in such a manner and blame atheists for their woes.

A word of caution is important here when it comes to terminology. One frequently hears or reads about secularists seeking the restriction of religion to "private" life and getting it out of "public" life — a position which gives people the impression that secularists don't want anyone ever talking about religion in public again. Although some secularists may harbor such feelings, this interpretation relies upon the fact that the public/private distinction has more than one meaning.

For secularists, they do not mean it in the same sense that a person's financial situation should remain private rather that becoming public knowledge. Instead, they are using "public" in the sense of "maintained for or used by the people or community." Thus, the desire to have religion removed from "public life" involves removing it not from public view but from public (read: government) support. The desire for religion to be made private involves not keeping it secret but keeping it a personal, voluntary endeavor.

We can see, then, that there is nothing about the process of secularization or a philosophy of secularism which requires the demise of religion. Secularists themselves are quite divided in their evaluations of religion and what role they think religion should have in society. Many are adamant in their belief that religion does more harm than good and they do hope that it will eventually disappear. Many others, however, are happy for it to retain a role in the social and moral lives of believers. Some secularists even support religious charities in their social efforts for the relief of poverty and suffering.

http://atheism.about.com/od/secularismseparation/a/ReligionSociety.htm

[longship]

1. Even before clicking through I will R&K this.

Last edited Sat Apr 12, 2014, 02:44 AM - Edit history (1)

It is starting out as a good, reasonable conversation.

Will click through even though it's about.com.

...any attempt to attack secularism essentially admits that they are unable to maintain people's interest and support on a purely individual, private, and voluntary basis.

That may be the core of this issue. This is why many in the religious right/GOP make the claim that the USA is a Christian country. And that is why secularists, and many believers, are opposed to the agenda of the religious right who seemingly want to use legislative fiat to endorse their beliefs to the exclusion of others. It is also why so many are now alarmed by these trends.

I believe that this began in the late 70's with Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and was supplanted by Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition in the 80's. They aimed to take over a political party by holding workshops in churches all over the country instructing people on how to run for precinct delegate in the Republican Party. They repeated this enough times that the vast majority of precincts were held by fundamentalist Christians.

Once they had the precincts in a district, they had the district delegates. Once they had the district delegates in a state, they had the state delegates. And once they had the state delegates, they had the national party. It was neatly done. And we are living that nightmare now.

The GOP is a fundamentalist religious cabal. Nearly the entire delegation are of the same stripe. That's why all these kooks are coming out of the woodwork. The party people like them. And they are the ones choosing the local candidates, raising the local money, walking door-to-door, etc.

We are seeing the results of this. And it is horrific. Do people think all these lunatics happened by accident? Or because of the tea party? Nope. They've been there all the time. And we cannot let them have power.

GOTV 2014

[pinto]

2. It's a good read.

[longship]

3. Expanded my post.

Thanks, pinto.

Good one.

[eridani]

4. Just looking through my donation cardfile

For a couple of atheists, we sure have a lot of religious groups on that list. I'm more concerned with ethics and practice than belief, and don't find belief to be particularly relevant to those things one way or another.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. I bet that since I have tuned my ignore list a bit, I won't see any (in)credible objections to this

article at all.

So far, looking pretty good.

[Exposethefrauds]

6. Correct Religion has no place at the table in Government

Keep your religion on private property.

I look at this this way, Religion in America got a tax free pass because Religion does not belong in Government, not paying taxes is the trade off religion gets to keep to its self and say any nonsense they want.

However once religion enters the world of the Government the religion now becomes fair game for criticism, which as we all know religious folks do not like.

If it were up to me, sadly it is not, I would make a great ruler, once religion gets involved in Government or politics the church, mosque, temple, whatever it may be, they lose their tax exempt status.