The Importance of Secularism Throughout history, we have seen the horrific results of theocracies and anti-theocracies. When the beliefs and concepts of the religious and/or anti-religious have been forced, either passively or aggressively, the results have been specifically catastrophic. Germany, Korea, Russia, Morocco, Italy, and others are currently devolving or have devolved in the past to affect appalling and extreme violations of the rights that all humans should be afforded, irrespective to their beliefs. This is not a slippery slope fallacy. There is not a single example in our present or history where enforcing or teaching a state religion or anti-religion has resulted in being beneficial to the populace. In many cases, it led to the dissolution of governments and the destruction of lives. Many theists (and some atheists) have the erroneous belief that secularism is pro-atheist. This is erroneous due to the simple fact that it is nothing more nor less than pro-egalitarianism. The same people who want creation taught in schools would not want the mythos of other faiths to be taught to their children as facts or alternative theories even though each of those myths are of equal substantiation. The same people who want laws to be subject to Christian moral values would not want those same laws to be subject to Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, or other such values. The irony is in the large number of those values that these Christians would accept if no theistic source were provided. The only way to afford every faith the same legal rights is to allow no faiths or lack of faith to be forced upon the populace through education or legal constructs. The simplest path to equality is true and pure separation. Secularism. Secularism is not atheism. It carries within it no claims against religion, faith, or the existence of gods. Secularism is the most parsimonious and necessary means to fulfill the notions of separation and freedom of religion. It is the only way that all faithful and faithless can receive fair and equal treatment under the law. Science and methodological naturalism are secular, ergo they are also not atheistic. This is widely misunderstood by atheists and theists alike. There is no assumption that there are no gods and there is no assumption that there are gods. There is simply a practice to search out natural and demonstrable answers to natural questions. By the same token, science does not prove there are no gods, as science cannot be used to disprove a concept that is necessarily and fundamentally disregarded from the onset. Methodological naturalism is the core of scientific method, and it is the same process that taught us that storms are not battles between angry gods, that mental disorders are not evil spirits, and that heterochromia is not evidence that a person is a witch. If you are not willing to accept the tenets of all faiths and belief systems being taught to your children, and you are not willing to give your tax money to build monuments for Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Taoist, or any faith outside your own, then you cannot, neither rationally nor without hypocrisy, expect anyone else to accept your own faith in the same context. - Thomas
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 11:41:26 +0000
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