Dafayan University of Science and Art

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Secularism.

Sec·u·lar·ism: (sĕk'yə-lə-rĭz'əm) n.

Religious skepticism or indifference. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.

secularist: sec'u·lar·ist n.

secularistic: sec'u·lar·is'tic adj.

Secularism

Secularity is the state of being free from religious or spiritual qualities. For instance, eating a meal, playing a game, or bathing are examples of secular activities, because there is nothing inherently religious about them. Saying a prayer or visiting a place of worship are examples of non-secular activities. A synonym for secular is worldly.

Secularism refers to a belief that many human activities and decisions should be free from religious interference. For example, a society deciding whether to promote birth control might consider the issues of disease prevention, family planning, and biblical righteousness. A secularist would argue that the religious issues are irrelevant to the decision.

Secular movements

Its proponents argue secularism is the concept that societies should be governed by a process of reasoning rather than dogmatic belief. Its opponents argue that secularism is a concept which, instead of presenting freedom of religion, actually holds all religions in contempt.

State Secularism

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 with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion.

Secularism is often associated with "Enlightenment", and plays a major role in modern society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of Separation of church and state in modern States and Kingdoms draw heavily on secularism.

Government Secularism

In this sense, secularists would prefer that politicians make decisions based on secular reasons, rather than religious ones. Decisions about many contemporary issues, such as cruel experiments on humans and sex education of children, should not be made on the basis of religious belief

Societal Secularism

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 natural social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement.

Secular ethics

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. Secularism should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism.

Secular society

In studies of religion, societies should be generally recognized as secular. Generally, there is near-complete freedom of religion (one may believe in any religion or none at all, with little legal or social sanction). Religious references should be considered out-of-place in mainstream politics. Religious influence should also be largely minimised in the public sphere, and religion should no longer hold the same importance in government systems.

Modern sociology, is born of a crisis of legitimation resulting from challenges to traditional religious authority. Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters are named below.