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Secularism in current usage can generally be defined in two ways:[1]
In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of church and state. This is the idea that religion should not interfere with or be integrated into the public affairs of a society. This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as the Ten Commandments and Sharia law) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of both religious minorities and atheists.
Secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, and plays a major role in Western society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of Separation of church and state in the United States and Laïcité in France draw heavily on secularism. As in the West, the idea of separation of the Church from the state has also existed in India since ancient times. Hindu traditions lend strong support to the idea that the functions of the priest and king are to be separated. An attempt was made (at least on paper and laws) to build the modern Indian society on these values and to a certain extent, this attempt has been successful as well.
Due, in part, to the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists would prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons. In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations like, the Center for Inquiry.[2][3]
Secularism is likewise an essential component of a secular humanist social and political ideology.
Most major religions accept the primacy of the rules of secular, democratic society but may still seek to influence political decisions or achieve specific privileges or influence through church-state agreements such as a concordat. The majority of Christians are proponents of a secular state, and may acknowledge that the idea has support in biblical teachings, specifically in the book of Luke, chapter 20, verse 25. In this verse, in response to a question about taxes, Jesus said, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." However, fundamentalism opposes secularism. The most significant forces of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world are fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Islam.
Some of the well-known constitutionally secular states are Canada, India, France, the United States, Turkey and South Korea, although none of these nations have identical forms of governance.
In studies of religion, modern Western societies are generally recognized as secular. Generally, there is near-complete freedom of religion (one may believe in one religion, many religions or none at all, with little legal or social sanction). In the West, it is believed religion does not dictate political decisions, though the moral views originating in religious traditions remain important in political debate in some countries, such as Canada, France, United States and others (see Laïcité). Religious references are considered out-of-place in mainstream politics. Modern sociology, born of a crisis of legitimation resulting from challenges to traditional Western religious authority, has since Durkheim often been preoccupied with the problem of authority in secularized societies and with secularization as a sociological or historical process. Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters are Max Weber, Carl L. Becker, Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg, M.H. Abrams, Peter L. Berger, and Paul Bénichou, among others.
Secularism can also be the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. In this sense, secularism can be involved in the promotion of science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.
Secularism can also mean the practice of working to promote any of those three forms of secularism. It should not be assumed that an advocate of secularism in one sense will also be a secularist in any other sense. Secularism does not necessarily equate to atheism; indeed, many secularists have counted themselves among the religious.
Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement; see secularization.
Main article: Secular ethics
George Holyoake's 1896 publication English Secularism defines secularism as follows:
Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good.[4]
Holyoake held that secularism and secular ethics should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the disagreement split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious movements and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.
Its proponents argue secularism is the concept that societies should be governed by a process of reasoning rather than religious belief. Its opponents argue that secularism is a concept which, instead of presenting freedom of religion, actually holds all religions in contempt.
Proponents of secularism have long held a general rise of secularism in all the senses enumerated above, and corresponding general decline of religion in what are deemed 'secularized' countries, to be the inevitable result of the Enlightenment, as people turn towards science and rationalism and away from religion and superstition. Opponents think that this view is arrogant, that secular government creates more problems than it solves, and that a government without a secular ethos is better. Christian opponents contend that a Christian state can give more freedom of religion than a secular one. For evidence, they point to Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark, all have a constitutional link between church and state and yet are often cited as being more progressive and liberal societies than some countries without such a link. For example, Iceland was among the first countries to legalise abortion, and the Finnish government provides funding for the construction of Mosques. Some cite the counterexample of the Netherlands - and, more recently, Sweden, it being both a secular state and socio-politically progressive although the Church of Sweden was disestablished as a state church only in 2000 and until 1996, all children automatically became members of the church at birth.
Proponents of secularism, also note that Scandinavian countries in general are de facto among the most secular countries in the world, having low percentages of individuals who hold religious beliefs.[5] Recently this argument has been debated publicly in Norway where movements sought to disestablish the state's Lutheran church.[6]
Some modern commentators criticized secularism by conflating it with anti-religious, atheistic, or even satanic belief systems. The word secularism itself is commonly used as a pejorative by spokesmen for the Religious right in the United States. The Pope has declared ongoing secularization to be one of the fundamental problems of modern society, and has made it the goal of his papacy to counteract secularism and moral relativism.
Groups such as the National Secular Society (United Kingdom) and Americans United campaign for secularism and are often supported by those who practice secular humanism. However, there is also support from non-humanists. In 2005, the National Secular Society held the inaugural "Secularist of the Year" awards ceremony. Its first winner was Maryam Namazie, of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran.
Another secularist organization is the Secular Coalition for America. While it is linked to many secular humanistic organizations and many secular humanists support it, as with the Secular Society, some non-humanists support it.
Local organizations such as Freethought Association of West Michigan work to raise the profile of secularism in their communities and tend to include secularists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and humanists under their organizational umbrella. Student Organizations, such as the Toronto Secular Alliance, try to popularize nontheism and secularism on campus.
See also the references list in the article on secularization