The term secularism can refer both to
the removal of ecclesiastical or religious control over the
institutions of society or, more broadly, to the absence of religious
symbols in the realm of culture. The first refers to institutions;
the latter, to consciousness. The former does not necessarily entail
hostility to religion, but the latter, if not hostile to religion, is
indifferent to it.
This distinction helps us understand
the dynamics of the culture wars in the United States. It is a
conflict between those who live in a realm of meaning devoid of
religious symbols and those who invoke these meanings in political
and social affairs but are frustrated by their lack of control over
those institutions that might express those religious meanings.
Insofar as America is becoming
increasingly religiously pluralistic, it is doubtful whether
secularism in the institutional sense will be reversed, because it is
precisely the separation of church and state that protects not only
the secularist but religious minorities from the majority. These
religions have a stake in secularism in the institutional sense. But
many of these minority religions nevertheless join with the more
dominant religion, Christianity, in condemning the irreligiousness of
the cultural secularist. This is particularly apparent in the issues
of same-sex marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research.
Consequently, it seems reasonable to
predict that cultural secularism will continue to be under attack by
religious forces of many kinds but that institutional secularism will
remain, even though sporadically challenged.
Since secularism in both cases refers
to an absence of religion, it seems antireligious to the religious
believer. What needs to be emphasized is that secularism in the
institutional sense is the necessary precondition of a society in
which human beings can freely choose and pursue their own vision of
human well-being. For some, this may be religious; for others, it
will not be.
Van A. Harvey is a professor emeritus
of religious studies at Stanford University and the author of A
Handbook of Theological Terms, The Historian and the Believer, and
the American Academy of Religion’s award-winning Feuerbach and the
Interpretation of Religion.
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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