Secular religions

From RationalWiki

There is a strange phenomenon among conservative critics of accusing various secular philosophies and ideologies, including atheism, liberalism, communism, evolutionism and environmentalism, of being "religions".

Contents 1 Atheism as a religion 2 Evolutionism as a religion 3 Environmentalism as a religion 4 Liberalism as a religion 5 Does secular religion exist? 6 Footnotes

[edit] Atheism as a religion

This is one of the most commonly encountered examples of this trend. Critics of atheism, usually conservative Christians, assert that atheism itself is a religious belief. It is somewhat bizarre that people who cherish so strongly the sanctity of their own beliefs should characterise something so alien to them as being a religion. One possibility is that they are so entrenched in their own religious mindset that they are unable to comprehend the idea of a non-religious belief. More likely, though, is that they believe they are pointing out some deep hypocrisy, in that atheists claim to reject religion while actually practising it.

For atheism to be considered a religion involves stretching the definition of religion to its loosest possible meaning - something like "a belief based on faith", in this case faith that there is no god. Even this is tenuous, for while some atheists have a strong conviction (arguably equivalent to religious faith) that God does not exist, an atheistic (or at least agnostic) viewpoint can also be achieved from taking the scientific (and therefore irreligious) attitude of only accepting as real things that are observable based on evidence. The argument can be further refuted by analogy. If disbelief in God is a religion, then so is disbelief in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, unicorns and leprechauns.^[1]

In fact, of the secular philosophies which are inaccurately described as religions, atheism is the least like a religion of all, since it does not dictate a specific worldview. contrary to the assumptions of many creationists, atheism does not necessarily require an acceptance of the big bang theory or the evolution of the species; it predated both of these. All atheism requires is a single belief, that God does not exist, or, to view it another way, a lack of any belief that God does exist. Unlike religions, atheism does not require any specific activities or observances. Assessed against the criteria which make up most definitions of religion (belief in supernatural beings, worship, ritual, etc.), viewing atheism as a religion just doesn't stand up to scrunity.^[2]

Do any atheists believe themselves to be practising a religion? It seems unlikely. The only times they tend to take this position are in very rare cases over civil rights issues or to exploit a legal loophole. For example, during 2005, a federal court of appeals ruled in favour of a prison inmate's right to start a 'religious' study group for atheists. Ironically, but unsurprisingly, when decisions like this are made, labelling atheism as a religion, the loudest objections come from conservative Christians, in this case the American Family Association.^[3]

[edit] Evolutionism as a religion

This is a favourite argument of creationists, who like to claim that the issue of evolutionism versus creatism "is not science versus religion, but religion versus religion (the science of one religion versus the science of another religion)". An example comes from The Lie:Evolution by Ken Ham,^[4] but betrays a profound misunderstanding of both religion, which it defines only as a "cause, principle or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" (quotemined from Webster's Dictionary), and evolutionism. Ham's ridiculous argument seems to be that nothing can be scientifically concluded from fossils since we can study them only in the present and have no direct access to their role in the past, unlike "the irrefutable evidence of the Scriptures".

From a more rational perspective, it is clear that the evolution of the species is a scientific theory, predicated on scientific foundations and with scientific applications. Even if its acceptance is considered to be a matter of personal faith, it does not meet any of the defining criteria to be considered a religion. Some philosophies drawn from evolutionism, and varying from social Darwinism to modern humanism, have more of a semblance to religion, even if not meeting the full definition, but these are not part of the theory itself.^[5]

[edit] Environmentalism as a religion

Although this argument has been proposed many times, one of the most popular examples is an article from 2003 by novelist Michael Crichton.^[6] Crichton suggests that environmentalists look back to a fabled paradise state of Eden in which man lived in unity with nature, before deconstructing this idyllic view of nature which, in fact, few if any environmentalists have ever professed. Crichton points to a few similarities with religion, such as environmentalists' fear of 'apocalyptic' doom if humankind doesn't redress its 'sins' of pollution and destruction, before telling us that DDT and second-hand smoke are harmless. His argument that sustainability is put forward as a form of religious salvation makes little sense, since sustainability is a system for managing resources, having more in common with economics than with religion.

To its most devoted adherents, environmentalism may present a coherent, almost religious, worldview which is espoused with zealotry, but its core beliefs rest on scientific observations and theories (such as global warming) rather than the supernatural deities which characterise a religion. Conservatives often counter this by attempting to associate mainstream environmentalism with pagan worship of the goddess Gaia or Mother Earth.^[7]

[edit] Liberalism as a religion

The most famous example of equating liberalism with religion, is Ann Coulter's book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism (2006), in which she argued that liberalism has become America's "official state religion", complete with its own creation stories, gods, martyrs, clergy, doctrines and sacrements. The argument basically boils down to a familiar attack on the curricula and values taught in public schools, whose teachers Coulter regards as "clergy" baptising children into the cult of liberalism, and the alleged liberal bias of the media. It also involves lumping together many beliefs and stances, such as evolutionary theory and the pro-choice movement, which, although held by many liberals, are not part of a strict set of political or religious tenets. Furthermore, it takes a really warped stretch of the imagination to see abortions as religiously motivated "virgin sacrifices", as Coulter apparently does.^[8]

[edit] Does secular religion exist?

Among the more persuasive variants of the 'secular religion' theory is an anthropological explanation proposed by Michael Crichton, in his crtitique of environmentalism.

“

I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people---the best people, the most enlightened people---do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.[6]

”

In some senses, Crichton may be right about this. Arguably, every person holds (and perhaps needs) a set of values and morals and makes their judgements about actions and people based on this. A strong belief system, whether religious or secular, can define our view of the world, our value system and how we feel about things. For example, an environmentalist may feel the same kind of guilt about using too much fuel or too many plastic bags, as a Christian would feel about committing a minor sin.

However, this is not what defines a religion. Religions contain a belief in some form of supernatural beings, force or deity at work in the world, and usually involve specific activities such as worship and ritual. While some secular philosophies, such as Marxism and Naziism, come close to being religious in nature, since they encompass a specific worldview and dictate an ethos based on this, they lack the kind of beliefs and practises which define religion.

The concept of 'secular religion' is a paradox, since anything secular is, by definition, not religious, and if it becomes religious it ceases to be secular. Even if secular belief systems are replacing religious ones, this does not make them eqivalent to religions.

[edit] Footnotes