Secularism
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion.
[1] Secularism may encapsulate anti-clericalism, atheism, naturalism, non-sectarianism, neutrality on topics of religion, or antireligion.
[3] As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from the material world, without recourse to religion.
These differ greatly, from the American emphasis on avoiding an established religion and the freedom of belief, to the French interventionist and controlling model, and more.
The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely, ranging from assertions that it is a crucial element of modernization, or that religion and traditional values are backward and divisive, to the claim that it is the only guarantor of free religious exercise.
A more "humanistic" form is indifferent towards religions per se but also advocates for the states to operate on purely a rational basis of evidence-based policy and a focus on human needs and welfare, entailing non-discrimination between peoples of differing religions and non-religious philosophical convictions throughout society.
In societies such as Ancient Greece, a limited secularism was practised in which religion was not involved in governance, though it was still prevalent in public life.
Due to functional differentiation, religion changed from being the predominant lens through which reality was interpreted to providing only an alternative explanatory approach.
[25] In 1636, Roger Williams founded the Providence Plantations as a settlement with total freedom of religion, in present-day Rhode Island.
[27] French secularism in the Age of Enlightenment was based on Gallicanism, which emphasised state supremacy, as well as anti-clericalism and materialism.
[28] Revolutionary France opposed Catholic influence in the country, and it briefly replaced Christianity with the deistic Cult of Reason.
Finding "atheism" too aggravating, he sought a term that would describe a stance advocating to conduct life based on naturalistic (secular) considerations only, but without necessarily rejecting religion, thus enabling cooperation with believers.
Many Christian countries began to undergo societal secularisation during the 20th century, with levels of belief and practice declining.
[35] In accord with the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons.
[36] In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations such as the Center for Inquiry.
India uses this system, incorporating Western ideas of secularism in combination with the Indian tradition of religious and ethnic pluralism.
One source of disagreement regarding accommodationism in India is the right of Muslims to live under both the civil code and Sharia simultaneously and the complications that result from this.
Unlike other secularist frameworks, state atheism does not permit freedom of thought or the separation of government from personal belief.
Twentieth-century scholars, whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters, include Carl L. Becker, Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg, M. H. Abrams, Peter L. Berger, Paul Bénichou and D. L. Munby, among others.
In democratic countries, middle and upper class white urban males with high education are more likely to identify as secularist than any other demographic group.
How a society considers what is secular may also change, where nominally spiritual beliefs become part of public or private life without being recognized as religious.
[55] During the Age of Enlightenment, liberal European philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all proposed various forms of separation of church and state.
[26] The work of well known moral philosophers such as Derek Parfit and Peter Singer, and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, have been described as explicitly secular or non-religious.
Secular concepts and reasoning of this kind belong to first philosophy and moral doctrine, and fall outside the domain of the political.
[61]Still, Rawl's theory is akin to Holyoake's vision of a tolerant democracy that treats all life stance groups alike.
His work has been highly influential on scholars in political philosophy and his term, overlapping consensus, seems to have for many parts replaced secularism among them.
