In this era of continually rising Christian-right activism, unprecedented intrusions of religious speech and symbols into public institutions, and sweeping changes in the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, it seems appropriate to ask, “Will Secularism Survive?”
For this issue, we have reprised the question posed in these pages some thirteen years ago (“Will Secularism Survive?,” FI, Summer 1992). Since then, the subject has grown only more compelling—perhaps that explains why, while the 1992 survey elicited sixteen responses, the current version has garnered more than forty.
Free Inquiry queried significant figures from across America and around the world, from ardent secularists to the champions of faith who oppose the secularist agenda. “What does secularism mean to you?” we asked. “Is it the best hope for civil order in a religiously diverse America, or a sterile ideology that decouples society from an indispensable otherworldly frame of reference? Is secularism an essential element as our culture strives to welcome religious minorities and the nonreligious, or a pretext for marginalizing Christian Americans? Is it Western society’s empowering gift to the world of thought, or a conceptual dead end that is already vitiating Western Europe? As opponents, who range from neoconservative intellectuals to fundamentalist churchgoers to Islamic mullahs, target secularism in their crosshairs . . . will secularism survive?” Free Inquiry is proud to present the results in this stimulating symposium-in-print.
One of the most consistent trends that emerged in the responses was a stark dichotomy between the tone of American and European respondents. Most American respondents shared a perception that secularism stands at a crossroads, that the culture war for which battle lines are now being drawn may forge a new landscape for religion in American public life. While many respondents viewed this prospect with misgiving, others welcomed it. For example, evangelist David Noebel exulted that secularism “indeed has not survived” and went on to demand, “who would want it to survive?”
Still, whatever their orientation, U.S. respondents generally shared the sense that now is a time of decision for the future of American secularism. In sharp contrast, European correspondents report that there, secularism stands unchallenged. Some even wondered why we bothered raising the question of secularism’s survival—or commiserated with us that American life had reached the point at which so grim a query seemed so cogent.
In the wake of the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh—and especially after the London transit bombings, apparently the work of disaffected Muslims dwelling in Britain—Europe’s quiet triumphalism regarding its own secularity may change. The presence of a large, cohesive, and primarily religiously motivated group that simply declines to embrace the tolerance, pluralism, and religious indifference that underlie Europe’s social compact may soon cause (pardon the expression) soul-searching of no less profound a character on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
In this issue, we offer domestic and worldwide comments upon what—for now—remains a uniquely American concern: “Will Secularism Survive?”
An undertaking of this scope necessarily involves a great many people. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Council for Secular Humanism and Center for Inquiry staff members past and present, including Norm Allen, Kevin Christopher, Bill Cooke, Matthew Cravatta, John Gaeddert, DJ Grothe, David Koepsell, David Park Musella, Benjamin Radford, and Andrea Szalanski and intern Kim Stewart. Without their dogged work, this feature would not have been possible.
CFI SUMMIT
OCTOBER 24-27 2013
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Joint Conference of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The transnational secular humanist magazine
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