THE RELIGION OF SECULARISM
- Science is the God of secular religion. Science has the power to solve all problems and has the potential to answer to all prayers.
- Proud secularists worship career, money, pleasure and sex. Nirvana is getting what I want whenever I want. ‘I’ ‘me’ and ‘my’ matters above everything else. Such secularists believe they are living in the real world.
- Recreational drugs and alcohol are the bread and wine of secular beliefs.
- Self-help books are the Bibles and Koran of secular culture. Psychotherapists, counsellors and astrologers are the priests of the religion of secularism.
- Entertainers, fashion models, film stars, and sports stars are the Gods and Goddesses of secular religion. The television set is the sacred shrine at home to watch in attentive silence.
- The faithful gather to worship their Gods and Goddesses at concerts, cinemas and sports stadiums. The faithful revere these Chosen Ones of secular religion.
- The followers of secular religion make their annual pilgrimage to exotic resorts to worship sun, sea and sand.
- The shopping mall is the Kingdom of Heaven. Money is the way to the Kingdom of Heaven – homo shopiens instead of homo sapiens.
- The university is the Temple of Knowledge – the way to the Promised Land of personal success and prosperity. Knowledge, sustained effort and a competitive attitude are the means to success.
- Proud secularists believe production, consumption and collection of goods is a primary reason for existence. Such secularists believe in ownership and wealth as the great goal of existence – human having instead of human being.
PS. Last word from David Bowie. “Is there life on Mars?”
I think I’d refer to these points as articles of faith of Nihilistic Corporate Capitalism rather than the (much broader) secularism. If forced to ‘be’ something, I suppose I’m a secularist, at least inasmuch as I think our governance and legal structures should not have narrow religious allegiances.
But that says nothing about my religious, metaphysical or ethical beliefs, and certainly doesn’t sign me up to taking seriously consumption as a basis for wellbeing (or even less any interest in corporate celeb culture!).
Secularism has freed us from religion!! I think that’s a good thing, a liberation, in spite of what you have pointed out. The times we live in demand personal responsibility which is fraught with dangers, I agree, but it must be seen as a positive development in my opinion. The times no longer demand traditional leadership, it is time for ‘being’ what we want to see in the world, not to convince people from a pulpit.