Secular
From RationalWiki
Secular most often means either of the following;[1]
- not religious, sacred, or spiritual.
- (of clergy) not subject to or bound by religious rule.
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[edit] Secular Law
The law of the land in many countries is considered secular. That is, the government that runs the country is not affected by and has no official ties with a church of any kind. The US is officially secular, having an official and legal separation of the church and state. In practice, this hasn't proved to work and many elections and legal proceedings are burried in religious thinking.
The UK by contrast, has an official connection between church and state (with the current Monarch as head of both), however in practice it is almost completely secular. France, however, is so secular it physically hurts.
[edit] Secular Science
Secular is the best way to describe science in so much that, as a principle, it is unaffected by existing dogmas or religious attitudes. Anti-science proponents would generally describe science as atheistic, believing that science seeks to deny god and seeing science as the enemy of religion. In the minds of such people, "secular" and "atheism" are essentially synonymous and this had lead to the so-called "conflict thesis"; that religion and science are inherently opposed.
Although science, as a method, is certainly not antitheistic, most scientists would agree that the results that have been derived from the method remove the need for god as an explanation for physical phenomena. This does not, however, necessarily lead to a conclusion that there is no god, it only limits what such a being can be used to explain.
Those with their eye on the middle ground between science and religion would take a NOMA stance and argue they are wrong on both counts. NOMA advocates would therefore state that science has no such goal and it is beyond the realm of science to deny god, or prove god does not exist. More hard line abuses of the NOMA concept would argue that no area should be free from scientific investigation including the possible existence of God(s).
[edit] Secular Life
As can be imagined, religious fundamentalists have no liking for the word or the concept of a secular society or life; and may even attempt to deny that such a concept is moral or even rational. However the term has wide application and makes perfect sense. There are many aspects of life that even the fundamentalists probably accept as not falling under the aegis of their religious beliefs. Purely personal matters such as; where to live, what colour to paint the back porch and whether or not Coke tastes better than Pepsi, are all secular matters. Although if some of the scenes in Jesus Camp are anything to go by, it could be argued that someone, somewhere will have turned such trivial matters into a theological debate. Churches have been issuing prayers for increasingly trivial (but more relevant to modern life) situations recently, so it is quite likely that religion for some people is all pervasive into every area of their life.
[edit] Why Secularism?
One can argue that secular life, law and science gives all religions equal footing and an equal voice. By eliminating their input, one religion cannot have an unfair domination over the other. Mostly, however, it keeps the crazies out of power.
