Secularism.... the belief system of the future?

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   A.Villarasaposted 13 years ago

   Secularism has blanketed Europe over the past 50 years, and has become the continent's predominant belief system. News that Mayor Bloomberg has banned all religious leaders(priests, rabbies, ministers etc.) from the 9/11 remembrance events in New York, seems to suggest that secularism is also on the march here in the United States. Could and would secularism ever take hold here, and would it ever dominate the country's socio-cultural landscape? I shudder to think and even contemplate that possibility.

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      A Troubled Manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      LOL! Better check your dictionary for the definition of secular as a belief system.

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         A.Villarasaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Starting your comments with LOL is not very helpful in starting a conversation. So what exactly is your beef?

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            A Troubled Manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Starting threads based on false premises. How is that helpful?

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               A.Villarasaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Kindly humor me and tell me why my post is based on a false premise.Unless of course if you think I'm intellectually challenged...that engaging in a debate with me is so underneath you.

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                  A Troubled Manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Secularism as a belief system is a misnomer. It's simply a system of a society or country that does not favor one religion over another, even atheism, in it's structure of laws and how their morals and judgments are decided. It's main purpose is to protect folks like yourself who hold religious beliefs and won't get persecuted for them.
                  
                  Funny how you shudder to contemplate changing that. Are you in favor of religious persecution?

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                     A.Villarasaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Webster defines secularism as indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious consideration, thus to secularize is to convert to or imbue with secularism. If that does not describe a belief system, I do not know what does. For you to infer that O am  advpocating any type of persecution is a total misreading of my post

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                        A Troubled Manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        So, by treating all religions equally so that no one religion is persecuted by the "religious considerations" of any other, that they may all practice their religions peacefully (freedom), we are therefore "converting" and have created a belief system in the process. LOL!
                        
                        
                        
                        Agreed. You don't know.

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                           A.Villarasaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           But of course you have. I'm surprised that Secularist 10 has not taken you to task for suggesting otherwise.

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      MelissaBarrettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Secularism is one of the founding tenants of the constitution, so yes it has kinda worked its way into the socio-economic structure.
      
      Separation of Church and State.  Pretty awesome as it means that the government cant tell me what religion I have to be.
      
      As I understand it, organized secularism doesn't seek to eliminate religion it seeks to protect individual rights.

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   secularist10posted 13 years ago

   Indeed, religious freedom requires state secularism. That was one of the primary reasons secularism was created in the first place--in response to the European religious wars, as an attempt to maintain peace and justice in religiously diverse societies.
   
   Secularism, in its political, intellectual, philosophical and cultural manifestations, has been growing for over 500 years and it continues to grow.
   
   Because it works. We tried religion for thousands of years and got little more than death, disease and misery. In the secular age, we have gotten increasing levels of health, wealth, knowledge and peace. Tough choice.

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   knolyourselfposted 13 years ago

   "Could and would secularism ever take hold here, and would it ever dominate the country's socio-cultural landscape? I shudder to think and even contemplate that possibility." Of course you don't mind Sharia law then, or Orthodox Judaism or
   Wahhabism.

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   knolyourselfposted 13 years ago

   How you can have agreement and peace in Monothesism, where different people have different one-God-only?

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