Secularisation Flashcards
What are the two forms of secularism? + Definition
Programmatic
- Religion has no place in public life, should be a private concept except from when in a religion building
Procedural
- Religion as part of the complex mixture of views citizens hold
Give statistic example of secularisation occurring in UK
- Start of 20th Century 80% marriages solemnised by church, by end 20%
Consequences of Secularisation? (5)
- Religion less influential on politics
- Fewer people attend religious ceremonies
- Moral choices based on rationality / harm principle rather than theological morality
- Less understanding of religion
- Increasing pessimism of supernatural / divine
Secularisation definition?
Religion becoming less important and less influential on society.
Reasons for Secularism
a) Sociological Evidence
Positives gained through focus on science
b) Religious Harm
- Harms caused by religion on society e.g. decreased religious based conflict
Problems with tracking secularism (3)
- Hard to measure
–> even if less church attendance doesn’t mean religion declining
e.g. David Martin - religion doesn’t disappear just changed presentation - Influence
–> Formal authority of church declining doesn’t decrease influence - Historical forced religion
–> forced religion attendance means previously inflation numbers don’t correlate with true religion believers
Name 3 supporters of Procedural Secularism? + their views
Procedural
- Religion as part of the complex mixture of views citizens hold
- Rowan Williams - Archbishop of canterbury
–> Procedural allows religion + non-religion voices to be heard
–> Programmatic assumes public religious expression is offensive + oppressive of non-religion views - Tony Blair
–> Weather religious or not should respect God
–> Alastair Campbell, “we don’t do religion” - King Charles III
–> Defender of the faith -to- defender of faith
Name an example of Procedural Secularism in the UK?
Procedural
- Religion as part of the complex mixture of views citizens hold
Parliament
- House of Lords; Chief Rabbi, Duke of Norfolk (catholics), 26 Anglican bishops (protestant)
Name country with Programmatic views? + example
Programmatic
- Religion has no place in public life, should be a private concept except from when in a religion building
- France
–> 1905 French law separates church + state
–> 2004 banned religion symbols in public spaced
Name Programmatic scholars. (5)
Programmatic
- Religion has no place in public life, should be a private concept except from when in a religion building
- Auguste Comte
–> As society develops, we move away from simplistic religious beliefs to scientific rational views (which rid society of false views) - Sigmond Freud
–> Religion as infantile illusion belonging to early stage of human development which will be eliminated by science + reason
–> Religion as neurosis + wish fulfilment resulting from human desire to be oppressed and due to human lack of control (from internal + external forces + longing for father figure) - Richard Dawkins
–> Religion irrational - production of wishful thinking
–> Religion as dangerous - cause of wars, misery (9/11) + prevents progress
–> Religion as abuse - morally wrong for parents to bring children up as religious
e.g. Hell houses
–> pastor in Colorado - actors pretended to sin and then were punished (tortured) - Bertrand Russel
–> Cannot disprove God, doesn’t make it practical / reasonable to assume e.g. God =Teapot revolving around sun - Nicolas Huphrey
–> Religion as child abuse
–> society has duty to protect children from ignorance of parents + crippling effect of religion on child’s mind - Karl Marx
–> religion makes people satisfied with poverty + inequality
–> religion, “the opium of the people”
Criticisms of Programmatic secularisation
Programmatic
- Religion has no place in public life, should be a private concept except from when in a religion building
- Misery + Wars during secular times
–> WW1+WW2 + Chernobyl in 20th century, caused by science - Atheist Immorality
–> Stalin - atheism doesn’t guarantee rational morality
–> Religion encourages morality e.g. ten commandments - Enlightenment - joining of Religion + Reason
–> Intellectual + rational people apply rationality to religion e.g. Descartes
–> Questions science unable to answer + contradictions within science e.g. physics
–> ‘big bang’ developer Polkinghorn - Religion as wish fulfilment
–> PoE - belief in God doesn’t solve anything
–> Wish fulfilment doesn’t make it intrinsically bad
Explain Jo Marchant’s views on Secularism?
- “Feeling part of something bigger may help us … defuse our deepest source of angst; knowledge of our own morality”
- Doesn’t disagree with religion as wish fulfilment
- Believes religion offers community aspect to help counter mental health + isolation
–> Ignores importance of individualism e.g. Jean Paul Satre
Name the 2 Legal case studies for Secularism?
Eweida V UK ECHR - 2006
- Nadia Ewedia worked for BA wore cross necklace, refused to take it off sued BA for double standards as hijabs were allowed
- BA decided they would allow employees to wear faith symbols
Lee V McArthur - 2016
- Gareth Lee ordered cake from bakery saying ‘support gay marriage’
- McArthurs thought it was sinful + refused
- Lee sued them + won
What are Rowan William’s views on Secularisation
- Rowan Williams
–> Archbishop of Canterbury,
–> Programmatic secularism views, assumes public expression of faith offensive + an attempt to remove opposing beliefs
Explain key points of Secular Humanism.
- Belief you can live good, noble life without need for religion
- Humans can derive moral code from history, personal experience + reasoning
- Programmatic views - religion removed from public life
