Secular Humanism
The rise and influence of Secular Humanism in the 20th century
Index
Brief Overview of the Antecedents of Secular Humanism
The Enlightenment and Renaissance
Political and Economic Factors
The Modern Era
Historical aspects; The Formalism of Secular Humanism
The Role of Science
Secularization in the West
Influential Thinkers
Secular Humanism in the Twentieth Century and its Crisis
The Influence of Secular Humanism
The phenomenon of secular humanism is a central facet of the constitution and character of contemporary Western culture and society. The modern development of this ideology or worldview has progressed from the humanism of the Enlightenment to the particle style of secular humanism that we find in the twentieth century. This cultural phenomenon became a dominant social and cultural force during the last century as a result of a wide array of contributing factors. This study is intended as an in-depth overview of these factors, such as the importance of the scientific mode of thought in the creation of as type of humanism that is essentially secular in character. Furthermore, the formalization and institutionalization of secular humanism in academic and other institutions is discussed as central to its acceptance and prevalence in society. The issue of secular as opposed to religious humanism also forms an important part of this dissertation. This study therefore takes into account the various critiques of secular humanism that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century.
1. Introduction
In Hamlet by William Shakespeare the main protagonist in the play states the following view of humanity:
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals
However, there is a certain amount of irony in this is veneration of human nature in that prior to the above statement the protagonist suggests a very different and more negative assessment of the human condition.
I have of late, - but wherefore I know not, - lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
Commenting on the difference between these two passages and their relevance to the question of secular humanism, Richard Norman ( 2004) states that, "we are presented with some challenging questions for humanism. Whatever we may say, in the abstract, about the powers of reason and action which human beings possess, is this enough to sustain us in the practical business of making sense of our lives?"
While the avowed secular humanist would answer yes to this question, there are those who would oppose an optimistic assessment of human potential and progress These critics would question this belief in mankind to create its own destiny independently of any religion or spiritual assistance simply by citing the many wars, massacres, genocides and other failures in modern human history.
This brief discussion brings to light the problematics of secular humanism. The debate about secular humanism rests on two major issues or assertions. The one view posits that human nature and human rationality is able to independently manage and create a world and society that is characterized by freedom, the observance of human rights and democracy. On the other hand there are many critics who question the fundamental secular nature of humanism, especially as a view of reality that is radically human-centered and subjective.
As will be discussed in this dissertation, many modern twentieth century thinkers place into deconstructive doubt the view of humanism that has developed and grown since the Enlightenment. The twentieth century philosopher Marin Heidegger, for example, questions the very human-centric ethos and basis of western metaphysical thinking and suggests that it is erroneous in its philosophical and social trajectory. One also has to take into account the fact that the twentieth century was a period that was characterized by immense social political as well as philosophical upheavals, which was to result not only in the questioning of the acceptance of religious and moral traditions but was also later to lead to the interrogation of the original impetus that led to the ideal of humanism.
This study will explore these various views, contention and debates in detail. However, the central thesis or focus of this dissertation will be on the rise, development and influence of this very important cultural and philosophical movement in the twentieth century. Particular emphasis will be placed on the effects and the repercussions in various fields and disciplines of the acceptance and increasing popularity of the secular humanistic ethos -- particularly in the academic field. It should also be noted that secular humanism is not just an academic or philosophical movement and that secular humanism has in fact had a deep impact on every aspect of modern Western culture. As will be discussed, the twentieth century was the age when the ideals of secular humanism became an endemic part of the mass or popular culture and infiltrated almost every aspect of society.
It is only fairly recently that secular humanism as a world view has begun to be questioned and critiqued by post-structuralist and postmodern thinkers and critics. Furthermore, two central aspects that will be explored in this dissertation are the link between secularization and materialism as well as the philosophy of existentialism and its modern and postmodern derivatives. An important aspect of this study will be to differentiate between religious humanism and secular humanism. Although this distinction is blurred in the Renaissance and earlier forms of humanism, it becomes a central facet of modern twentieth century humanism. In fact a central focus of debate and contention is the difference between these two forms of humanism and the implications of the term secular which will be explored in depth in this dissertation.
A central focus of the study will therefore be the particular relationship of secularization to the contemporary development of humanism.
1.2. Brief overview of the literature
This section is intended as a brief overview of the literature that was consulted for this study. There is a wide and extensive range of books, journals and Internet resources on this topic. The progression and development of the ethos of secular humanism is well documented and discussed in almost every academic discipline- which is evidence of the pervasiveness of this ideology in contemporary thought.
An attempt was made to draw from as many diverse sources and resources as possible. Books and research studies on the antecedents and origins of humanism were consulted as well as works that were directed mainly at the century under discussion. The initial research was aimed at accessing as many relevant studies and works as possible in order to provide insight into the origins of this phenomenon as well as its contemporary manifestation in modernism and the twentieth century. In this regard sources that were not directly related to secular humanism but dealt with the topic in an oblique sense were also consulted; such as works on art and literature which refer to secular humanism.
The following is a small selection of the most useful and insightful resources that were consulted. An extremely useful secondary source that provides an overview of the historical development of secular humanism is On Humanism by Richard Norman, (2004). This work not only provides extensive and well-written background to the cultural and social development of humanism as well as secular humanism but it also succeeds in illuminating central aspects and points of contention in the debate about secular humanism. The work was also useful in that it provided insight into the various historical critiques of this ideology
Another book that was useful in terms of the historical aspects of secular humanism was Paul Kurtz's, In Defense of Secular Humanism (1983). This work was particularly important as a resource in terms of the debate between secular and religious humanism that was to be a point of contention in the second half of the twentieth century.
The term secular is contentious with many differing definitions. Among the wide range of resources that shed light on this imports concept is The Post-Secular: A Jewish Perspective by James S. Diamond ( 2004). An important aspect of this study is a discussion of the complicity and problematics in defining the term secular in the modern and postmodern contact. This work provides insight into the effects and the influence of secularization in the context of the debate about modernist humanism. Another work that explores the issue of the secular in relation to the traditional and religious perspective is Our Religio-Secular World by Martin E. Marty (2003).
Among the plethora of general studies and overviews of the Renaissance origins of contemporary humanism is Paul Johnson's The Renaissance. This work provided an intensive discussion historical forces that were to lead to modern humanism but also succeeds in placing these aspects into the context of the larger social, historical and political milieu. .
Online sources and databases proved to be a valid and often insightful recourse area for this topic. Of particular note is a concise and well-written article by Stephen Weldon entitled Secular Humanism in the United States. This article provides a well-structured overview of the main issues in the development of secular humanism. It also provides insight into the influence of secular humanism in the United States.
An online article that is especially pertinent in terms of the consequences of the rise of secular rationality in an ideological sense is The Great Scandal (part 1) Christianity's Role in the Rise of the Nazis by Gregory Paul. This article also adds to the complexity of the debate about the positive or negative influence of the ideology of secularization in the last century.
Primary sources were also consulted, especially in terms of research on the philosophical view of secularization in the twentieth century. An example is the insightful lecture by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell entitled Why I Am Not a Christian (1927). This is a major example of the impact that secular humanism had on central thinkers and academics.
There were numerous works consulted that dealt with the intersection between secular humanism and religion. One book of note is Bryan R. Wilson's, Religion in Secular Society: A Sociological Comment (1966), as well as Paul's "The Secular Revolution of the West: It's Passed America By-So Far," (2002). Both these and other studies provided a comprehensive background to the development of secular humanism in the last century. A study by Matthew D'Agostino, Reason and Rationality: The Core Doctrines of Secular Humanism, was also a useful source of data and insight in this regard.
1.3. Definitions and Overview
The following definition is one that emphasizes the positive values and life-affirming aspect of this humanism
HUMANISM is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports liberty and opportunity consonant with social and planetary responsibility. Free of theism and other supernatural beliefs, humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny.
The above quotation emphasizes a number of initial points that should be unpacked in order to better understand this view of life and reality. The first is the emphasis on human rationality and reason as the central means of obtaining knowledge that is verifiable and 'true'. The second is the emphasis on the value of human potential, creativity and intellect and the focus on human responsibility for the world and society.
The third is concomitant with the preceding points. This refers to the secular element of human being which makes it free "…of theism and other supernatural beliefs" and from ideological and abstract constructs and constraints that do not serve human interests. The secular aspect of this ideology in fact flows from the emphasis on human capability that is unconstrained by creed or religious dogmas. As will be discussed, while the development of a general humanism is often accepted, the secular aspects of humanism are an issue that raises a number of concerns for many thinkers in the twentieth century. The last line of the above quotation possibly sums up the main trajectory of secular humanism -- which is to assert that, "…humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny."
The ideology of secular humanism has its roots in Enlightenment thought and is "…based in large part on the Western tradition of liberalism and notions about the status and role of science in the modern world."
It is described more correctly as a "…nontheistic belief system that upholds the prime importance of rationality, human autonomy, and democracy."
The term humanism is an essential aspect that needs to be understood in detail in order to comprehend the relevance of this ideology to our modern age. In the late fifteenth century the term 'umanista' was used to refer to a scholar or teacher of the humanities; which included the disciplines of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy.
These fields of study were also referred to as 'studia humanitatis', which is, importantly, a phrase which refers to a contrast between the study of 'humanity' and the study of divinity.
Humanists in the fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in European countries were in particular interested in "….the study of the classical literature of ancient Greece and Rome, finding in it an ideal of human life which they wished to revive."
This is an important aspect in understanding the roots of secular humanism in that the Greek world in particular provided a model of reason and democracy that was to be emulated by many early humanist writings. For example the Renaissance humanist Pico della Mirandola wrote On the Dignity of Man, which was concerned with reconciling the worldviews as well as the literature of the ancient world with Christian religious belief.
This aspect of Classical influence is further strengthened by the fact that the term 'Humanismus' is to be found in a German educational context in the nineteenth-century. This term refers to the traditional classical education built around the humanities.
The extension of the term humanism to mean more than just a concept in education was established by Jacob Burckhardt's famous book Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien ( 1860). In this book Burckhardt"…speaks of humanism not just as an educational curriculum but as a broader cultural phenomenon, and he hints at the potential conflict with the Christian church. "
This points to the way in which the ideals of humanism were to spread and emerge as a cultural and social phenomenon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - as well as raising the ire and condemnation of conventional and orthodox religion.
An important aspect of early humanism is expressed by Norman ( 2004);
With his celebration of the distinctive human capacity for free choice, however, Pico does put a new slant on traditional Christian views of human nature, and more generally the Italian humanists represent a new emphasis on the value of human achievements in this life rather than seeing it simply as preparation for the life to come.
The above is extremely important in terms of an in-depth understanding of this term. This refers to an understanding of the term secular humanism as opposed to religious humanism. In other words, in general it can be argued that the earlier view of humanism was one that was more concerned with the potential of human freedom and development in relation to and in conjunction with the religious ideologies and spiritual traditions of the time. This was to change with the nineteenth and twentieth century and with the views of modern science that resulted in the secularization of the humanist ethos.
The term secular also poses a number of problematic areas of discourse and understanding. It is recognized as term that is extremely difficult to define in precise or exact terms. As Diamond ( 2004) states; "What, then, do we mean by "secular"? The word is a staple of contemporary parlance, bandied about almost without thinking as something opposed to or different from "religious."
He emphasizes that there is little scholarly consensus about the meaning of this term and that there is also a decided difference better the words secularization and secularism.
There are a number of divergent views about the nature and meaning of secular. One scholar refers to the view that secular is essentially the opposite of religious. Secularization is described with reference to the view that,"… religion is a set of beliefs about the ultimate ground of existence, that which is unconditioned, not itself created or caused."
The secular or secularization is the movement in society away from the subjective belief "….in an ultimate ground of existence, a deity, God."
This movement within the society and culture away from a religious perception or conception of reality means that,"…, people usually also cease to worship and pray in community, in churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. They reject religion altogether. "
There are other views about the meaning of secular which consider a dualistic opposition between secular and religious as being too simplistic and extreme. One theologian comments that, …we need a new model for describing the world that we actually inhabit. It is neither exclusively secular nor exclusively religious, but rather a complex combination of both the religious and the secular, with religious and secular phenomena occurring at the same time in individuals, in groups, and in societies around the world.
In other words, the binary opposition between secular and religious is seen in this view to be unrealistic and that there are many 'shades of grey' or areas where the secular and the religious interact and when it is often difficult to separate the two in modern societies. While this is a point-of-view that has a great deal of validity it also tends to complicate any comparative discussion of the secular vs. The religious. Therefore, for the purpose of this study the secular will be understood as the movement away from religion or the decline of the religious and spiritual components of society and will also be linked to the emergence in the West of materialism and scientific objectivity and rationality.
One also has to understand the heritage as well as the ideological trajectory from the past that relates to the term secular humanism. In brief, the essence of humanism "...consisted in a new and vital perception of the dignity of man as a rational being apart from theological determinations, and in the further perception that classical literature alone displayed human nature in the plenitude of intellectual and moral freedom."
In this sense it was to a great extent a reaction against ecclesiastical despotism and control. However it can also be seen as a "…an attempt to find the point of unity for all that had been thought and done by man, within the mind restored to consciousness of its own sovereign faculty."
This relates to the adherence to the ideals of the Greek and Roman worldview and human freedom of thought and the need to substitute "…a new authority for the traditions of the Church."
This was to lead not only to conflict with the Church but also to efforts to reconcile the secular with the religious. This attempt at a theoretical reconciliation was a central focus of the earlier development of secular humanism. As the ideological and cultural weight and influence of secular humanism grew and attracted more adherents, the term 'humanism' came to be linked more closely with the rejection of religious."
However the central tendency in the development of secular humanism is towards a rejection of religious and ecclesiastical authority. This is evident, for example, in a text from the Enlightenment by Baron d'Holbach, entitled Systeme de la Nature of 1770. Holbach desired to understand humanity as a part of Nature. As such man is governed by the laws of nature and that by, …properly understanding themselves as part of nature, human beings will learn how to pursue their own happiness effectively, will recognise that happiness is achieved by living in peace and harmony with others, and that this, not a set of theologically sanctioned laws and commands, is the true nature of morality.
The idea of the 'natural man' was also to form an important of the understanding of the term secular humanism and this perception of the importance of the relationship between humanity and nature was to extend into the twentieth century. This view also refers to the denial of any spiritual or religious context for human existdence that might possibly exist outside of nature.
For a being formed by Nature, and circumscribed by her laws, there exists nothing beyond the great whole of which he forms a part, of which he experiences the influence. The beings which he pictures to himself as above nature, or distinguished from her, are always chimeras formed after that which he has already seen, but of which it is impossible he should ever form any correct idea, either as to the place they occupy, or of their manner of acting.
From this perspective the meaning of the secular aspect of secular humanism becomes clear. In other words, the term secular refers to the stance that mankind should seek for knowledge and meaning only within the parameters of the visible and material world and the world created by human intellect and imagination. This comprises all of existence and the search for meaning outside of this context leads only to illusion. This fundamental bias of secular humanism was to provide the basis for much debate and dissention in the twentieth century onwards.
Secular humanism, as will be elaborated on, has become in modern times a very contentious issue -- with many thinkers and philosophers attributing the emphasis on secularization as the reason for many of the ills in the world and in the United States.
This view will be explored in -- depth in terms of the influence that humanism and secular humanism in particular has had on society and the larger world culture. However, these critics are countered by many contemporary humanists who stress that freedom, human rights and democracy are the central focus of the secular humanist movement -- and that these issues supersede outmoded religious tenets and ideologies.
The following quotation from Howard B. Radest ( 1990) is cited at length as it provides insight into the way that secular humanism is perceived by many modern thinkers and critics.
Basically, humanists believe in freedom and pluralistic democracy as virtually our first principle, and we are disturbed by any authoritarian effort to impose one point-of-view on America. Defense of the open, democratic society should be the first point humanists make in response to the Moral Majority, making it clear that in our reading of the American tradition pluralism is essential. We too are American citizens, nourished like other citizens by the same traditions that go back to the founding fathers, Paine, Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin, who were, in our view, humanistic, anticlerical, and committed to the ideal of a free society. We have to make it clear that the Moral Majority is really shaking the foundations of the American republic. In a free society, diversity of opinion, whether moral, political, philosophical, scientific, cultural or religious, will flourish, and any effort to oppose it is contrary to our deepest roots. The paradox intrinsic to the fundamentalist right is that, on the one hand, it claims belief in "freedom," but yet, on the other, it is all too ready to legislate morality and belief. Perhaps they are talking only about economic freedom, but what about the other freedoms that apply in America? As humanists we need to make clear our uncompromising commitment to freedom of the individual, free inquiry, free culture, free science, philosophy, religion, and conscience. We oppose any tyranny over the minds of men and women, any narrowing of the right to independence of thought.
The above make a very clear statement about the ethos of individual freedom of choice and action that constitutes the meaning of modern secular humanism. However, it would be shortsighted to view the rise of secular humanism as a consciously constructed or managed movement. It emerged rather as a response to a need to escape various forms of control and oppression and it is a movement that is essentially about the need for recognition of human control and power and the right to determine individual destiny without intervention or coercion. This is the reason why the term freedom plays such as an important part in the rhetoric that we encounter from avid secular humanists.
It should also be noted that the development of modern humanism is often referred to by other terms and categories of thought.
At times, Humanism has come to us embedded in religion and in politics, at other times in the arts, and at still others in the sciences. Often it has been known by other names -- as in Socrates' skepticism, Democritus' materialism, Jefferson's Deism, Ingersoll's secular religion, or Comte's "religion of humanity."
The twentieth century is noted as era in which Humanism was to emerge as an organization with a status in its own right. Furthermore, it was to become entrenched and accepted in educational institution as well as in almost every other area of formal and informal society.
However, at the same time, the twentieth century was also the era of disillusionment and intense deconstruction and interrogation of all accepted views and ideologies. This also refers to secular humanism and we find a strong reaction in the second half of the century the element of secularization in secular humanism.
2. Brief Overview of the Antecedents of Secular Humanism
In order to understand the rise and development of secular humanism in the twentieth century one firstly has to understand the cultural and socio-historical antecedents of this phenomenon. As stated in the introduction, the ethos of secular humanism is centered on the movement away from a dependence on a religious or spiritual conception of human being. The central underlying premise of secular humanism is firstly that it is secular as opposed to religious. This is a cardinal aspect that had its initiatory moment in the human-centric Enlightenment.
2.1. The Enlightenment and Renaissance
As one scholar remarks about the origins of secular humanism, "The point of separation was the Enlightenment; the impulse to separation was modern empirical science."
The period known as the Enlightenment is described as an era in which the groundwork of modern humanism was developed. It was in one sense an age of reaction and particularly reaction against the restrictive theological and religious tenets of the time. There was also a strong feeling among thinkers and philosophers that humanity should advance beyond the myths and superstitions that had constituted the dominant views of reality. For example, we can refer to Thomas Paine's Age of Reason (1794 -- 1796), which "…argues for a religion based on a belief that the world was created by a rational God…"
In other words, this refers to a God that was not distant or alien but who thought and corresponded to the way that human beings thought and felt. Therefore, the reaction against tradition was also accompanied by a faith and belief in the rational potential and creative possibilities of the human mind. Many later philosophers in the twentieth century -- such as Martin Heidegger - were to question these foundations of secular humanism and viewed them as a form of reductionism of Being or God to a subjective and human level, thereby ignoring or refusing to acknowledge a view of reality that was outside the human domain. This aspect and the various critiques of secular humanism that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century will be explored in the last section of this dissertation.
Nevertheless, the Enlightenment and its strong humanistic tendencies towards the potential of human reason and rationality were to form the core of contemporary secular humanism. As Gregory Paul states, "With the Enlightenment, deistic and secular thinkers seeded Western culture with Greco-Roman notions of democracy and free expression. The feudal aristocracies and the churches counterattacked, couching their reactionary defense of privilege in self-consciously biblical language."
In a general sense what occurred in the Enlightenment was a conflict between a human -- centered ethos that venerated human reason as opposed to a dominant and dominating theological and religious ethos. As one scholar writes;
This controversy would shape centuries of European history. As late as 1870, the Roman Catholic Church reaffirmed a reactionary program at the first Vatican Council. Convened by the ultraconservative Pope Pius IX (reigned 1846 -- 1878), Vatican I stridently condemned modernism, democracy, capitalism, usury, and Marxism.
However, in order to understand these developments and the buildup to the particular style of secular humanism of the twentieth century, we also have to take into account earlier Renaissance figures and thinkers. The humanist thinkers who emerged in countries like Italy and France in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries promulgated a form of humanism that "…did not then have the anti-religious associations it has in contemporary political debate."
They in fact saw a strong connection between humanism and religion.
They argued that the proper worship of God involved admiration of his creation, and in particular of that crown of creation: humanity. By celebrating the human race and its capacities they argued they were worshipping God more appropriately than gloomy priests and monks who harped on original sin and continuously called upon people to confess and humble themselves before the Almighty.
Central to the Renaissance form of humanism was the desire to reinvigorate society and culture with the spirit and the creativity of the ancient Greeks and Romans. A leading figure in this regard was Galileo Galilei. This refers as well to the 1632 argument for the Copernican notion that the earth rotates on its axis beneath the unmoving sun. This was a rational view of the reality of the cosmos but one that was stridently objected to by the Catholic Church; which categorically stated the ideological stance that the sun moved through the sky and denounced Galileo's teachings, forcing him to recant what he had written and preventing him from teaching further. However, this was only a first battle in the history of rational and secular humanism and the subsequent advance of science and reason were to overcome the traditional religious views about the universe.
Early Renaissance thinking was therefore characterized by a rebellion against conventions and religious orthodoxy and a search for new answers to the question of mankind's relationship to the universe and the world. Another example is Francois Rabelais, a French monk and physician influenced by Protestantism, who challenged the Church's authority, ridiculing many religious doctrines as absurd.
One of the strongest challenges to Church orthodoxy was to come from Michel de Montaigne, who argued that morality was not God-given but was relative to different cultural milieus and situations. He asked question such as "Who are Europeans to insist that Brazilian cannibals who merely consume dead human flesh instead of wasting it are morally inferior to Europeans who persecute and oppress those of whom they disapprove? "
This movement towards social and cultural relativity was to have a profound effect not only on the Enlightenment but also on the modern world and is a subject that is still controversial today. The point being made is that these early humanist thinkers challenged the conventions and norms of the orthodoxy of their time, paving the way for the emergence of as more radical and human-centered world view. Therefore the Enlightenment thinker, …used the examples of other cultures to gain the freedom to reshape not only their philosophies, but their societies. It was becoming clear that there was nothing inevitable about the European patterns of thought and living: there were many possible ways of being human, and doubtless new ones could be invented.
This relativistic stance and open-ended questioning of centuries of convention, tradition and orthodoxy was to lead to the era of science and the view of objective and verifiable scientific inquiry and methodology as the only true arbiter of reality. The idea that human reason and intellect alone could explain and describe the world and was not dependent on religious theories and dogma began to take shape and evolve into what we understand today as secular humanism.
This view became more evident in the seventeenth century with the work of Rene Descartes. His theory of existence reduced to the basic and essential human level -- "I think, therefore I am" -- is a clear dictum of the humanist ethos and the view that the human mind and consciousness is the center of existence.
However, Descartes also attempted to develop a form of religious humanism and shaped his theories to correlate humanistic thought to religion. He … attempted to reason his way to a complete defense of Christianity, but to do so he committed so many logical faults that his successors over the centuries were to slowly disintegrate his gains, even finally challenging the notion of selfhood with which he had begun."
It should also be noted that during this period logic was not seen as the central or only tool of humanism. Logic was related to other human aspects to constitute the ideology of reason. The concept of reason included aspects such as commonsense and observation, which was later to develop into the scientific method. It should also be remembered that during the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries there was a continual imposition of religious dogma and rationalists and humanists were often singled out and punished for their 'heresy'.
The 17th century was torn by witch-hunts and wars of religion and imperial conquest. Protestants and Catholics denounced each other as followers of Satan, and people could be imprisoned for attending the wrong church, or for not attending any. All publications, whether pamphlets or scholarly volumes, were subject to prior censorship by both church and state, often working hand in hand.
Repression was also fostered by political means and the growth of the power of the state in European countries.
The search for freedom and truth was therefore a natural reaction to this repression and this was in turn fostered by the development of Protestant opposition to the Catholic Church. Furthermore, numerous Protestant sects and Churches were established, all claiming to profess the 'truth'. This resulted in a realization among many that the religious ideology of the past was not sacrosanct, 'fixed' or eternal but rather that it was relative and transient. Skepticism about the religious and spiritual approach to reality began to grow and this was to germinate into the secular approach to reality that was to flower with the growth of modern science.
2.2. Political and Economic Factors
There are as number of political and economic aspects that should be noted as precursors to the development of a secular humanism. In the first instance there was a large-scale movement of people from the rural areas to the towns during the Middle Ages. This was to increase with the advances in trade and communication that took place during the Renaissance. This movement from the rural areas also meant that the conventions and cultural traditions in Europe began to breakdown or be put into question as a result of the displacement of centers of culture. This was or lead to the development or creation of new social norms and processes; for example, the early humanists felt that, "New charters could be written, new governments formed, new laws passed, new businesses begun. Although each changed institution quickly tried to stabilize its power by claiming the support of tradition, the pressure for change continued to mount."
There were of course many others factors that led to new innovations and which encouraged new thinking about society and existence. These would include contact with different and alien cultures which tended to relativize the accepted ideas and notions of reality.
Purely economic factors also added impetus to the movement away from the traditions and views of the past. The wealth that was brought to Europe from African and Asian continents as a result of expansion, trade and colonization created a new wealthy class of merchants. This was to result in changes in the stratification and class structure of traditional society and a challenge to the established aristocracy.
The traditional religious ideals were subsequently gradually replaced by the views and motives of the wealthy class of merchant and the creation of a new middle class. This was to not only introduce a new era of materialism, which can be linked to modern secular thought, but was also to introduce new and innovative ideas and views about life and the nature of reality. "These merchants had their own ideas about the sort of world they wanted to inhabit, and they became major agents of change, in the arts, in government, and in the economy."
The important aspect to focus on in this historical scenario is that the new wealthy entrepreneurial classes considered themselves to the 'self-made'. This implied a pride in their own human achievements, often in the face of conventional and orthodox opposition -- and this in turn engendered an ethos of individualism that was to act as a central pillar of the contemporary humanistic movement. "They were naturally convinced that their earnings were the result of their individual merit and hard work, unlike the inherited wealth of traditional aristocrats."
There was also a very real shift in the tenor and shape of modern humanism towards the material, economic and scientific mode of thought and action. Whereas in the Renaissance the individual humanist was typified by the creative artist and thinker, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries "… it now became a core value" and was linked to the view of that any individual could shape and change his or her world.
"The ability of individual effort to transform the world became a European dogma, lasting to this day."
In essence therefore, the beginnings of secular humanism in the contemporary sense are closely related to the rise of individual freedom as opposed to the authority of tradition and religion.
The Enlightenment is often associated more with France and the political and social movements that arose in that country. However, the consciousness that informed secular humanism was also evident in influential countries like Britain. Thinkers like John Locke and Scot David Hume, among others promoted the thinking and sprit of modern humanism. Furthermore, England was already well on the road to democracy and freedom from political and religious authority with the demise and decapitation of its King in the seventeenth century.
This was also added to by the fact that
English Protestantism struggled to express itself in ways that widened the limits of freedom of speech and press. Radical Quakers and Unitarians broke open old dogmas in ways that Voltaire was to find highly congenial when he found himself there in exile. The English and French Enlightenments exchanged influences through many channels
In Europe the author and philosopher Voltaire or Francois-Marie Arouet was involved with other humanists in a struggle to assert their views on freedom and tolerance in society. Voltaire was an advocate of humanist ideals such as civil liberties and freedom of religion as well as free trade. He and many others were rigidly opposed by both the Church and the State in France. Voltaire found that in order to fright the authorities and promote his humanistic views he had to undermine the credibility of the ecclesiastical authorities.
Voltaire devoted a great deal of his time to attacking the fundamentals of Christian belief: the inspiration of the Bible, the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the damnation of unbelievers. No doubt he relished this battle partly for its own sake, but he never lost sight of his central goal: the toppling of Church power to increase the freedom available to Europeans.
The early roots of secular humanism were not however limited to Europe. In the newly established American colonies many intellectual leaders of the time were drawn to the thinking of the Enlightenment. The developing ethos of strong American humanism and individualism, coupled with the importance given to the separation of the church and state in American political history is succinctly summarized in the following quotation.
The colonies may have been founded by leaders of various dogmatic religious persuasions, but when it became necessary to unite against England, it was apparent that no one of them could prevail over the others, and that the most desirable course was to agree to disagree. Nothing more powerfully impelled the movement toward the separation of church and state than the realization that no one church could dominate this new state.
Many of the leaders of the American Revolution, such as Jefferson and Washington, were deeply influenced by the English Enlightenment as well as the example set by the French Enlightenment. As one critic notes of the rise of American humanism:
The God who underwrites the concept of equality in the Declaration of Independence is the same deist God Rousseau worshipped, not that venerated in the traditional churches which still supported and defended monarchies all over Europe. Jefferson and Franklin both spent time in France -- a natural ally because it was a traditional enemy of England -- absorbing the influence of the French Enlightenment. The language of natural law, of inherent freedoms, of self-determination which seeped so deeply into the American grain was the language of the Enlightenment
3. The Modern Era
As the above discussion has intimated, it is extremely important in the first instance to distinguish between older forms of humanism and the modern or contemporary form or forms of this phenomenon. While the ethos of humanism as an expression of human will and freedom was to remain essentially and generally the same into the modern era, there are basic and important differences between the religious humanism to be found in many Enlightenment era and the secular humanism of the twentieth century. This change and difference is one of the key characteristics of modern secular humanism and will be explored in this section.
The difference between the humanism of the Enlightenment and contemporary humanism can be clearly seen if we compare the humanism of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and modern twentieth century scientific and philosophical concepts of humanism.
The Italian Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in his oration On the Dignity of Man (1486), justifies his faith in human nature and human intellect as being 'worthy of wonder'. In the oration he therefore verifies his sense of the dignity and value of humanity in an address by God to his created being. The following extract is quoted at length as it provides a useful insight into Renaissance humanism as a precursor to the modern emphasis on the human. These are the words the Pico suggested that God said to Adam.
'We have given to thee, Adam, no fixed seat, no form of thy very own, no gift peculiarly thine, that thou mayest feel as thine own, have as thine own, possess as thine own the seat, the form, the gifts which thou thyself shalt desire. A limited nature in other creatures is confined within the laws written down by Us. In conformity with thy free judgment, in whose hands I have placed thee, thou art confined by no bounds; and thou wilt fix limits of nature for thyself. I have placed thee at the center of the world, that from there thou mayest more conveniently look around and see whatsoever is in the world. Neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal have We made thee. Thou, like a judge appointed for being honorable, art the molder and maker of thyself; thou mayest sculpt thyself into whatever shape thou dost prefer. Thou canst grow downward into the lower natures which are brutes. Thou canst again grow upward from thy soul's reason into the higher natures which are divine.'
The above quotation is enlightening for as number of reasons. The first and most obvious is Pico's emphasis on the fact that human beings have been endowed by God with free choice which elevates them above the other creatures. Man is given the ability to "grow" or develop and to transcend the word of 'base' nature through his God-given intellect and imagination. This is a central tenet of humanist ideology and flies in the face of prescribed religious ethics and dogma.
Note as well that God states to Adam that there are no barriers or parameters to his human being. "We have given to thee, Adam, no fixed seat, no form of thy very own…" and "In conformity with thy free judgment, in whose hands I have placed thee, thou art confined by no bounds; and thou wilt fix limits of nature for thyself.
This again emphasizes the open-ended and unrestricted nature of human being.
However, the humanism that Pico propounded was one that attempted to find its centre and justification in religious terms. Man was to use his intellect to develop himself beyond the limits of earthly nature and to aspire to the condition of angels. In other words, the aim of this form of humanism was to "…draw closer to God."
Pico continues in his oration and draws on religious documents from Christian and Hebrew Scriptures and the ancient Greek philosophers, as well as the writings of Islamic thinkers and of Zoroastrianism.
His view of humanism is therefore "firmly located in a religious context."
If we turn to the twentieth century we encounter a very different type of humanism. The following extract is from philosopher Bertrand Russell's lecture, Why I Am Not a Christian ( 1927).
Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look round for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the Churches in all these centuries have made it. We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world - its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is, and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence, and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it.
Russell goes on to attack what he considers to be the false ideology of God and the illusory faith in religion, which in fact impedes man's upward growth and evolutionary development.
The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings.
The emphasis on the freedom of the intellect and human dignity is similar to the oration by Pico. However, the tone is very different and there is a world of difference in the humanistic stance that Russell evinces, particularly in terms of the attitude towards religion. Russell does not see the goal of humanism as a means of becoming closer to God or religion. In fact he discounts and denies religious faith in the strongest terms and in its entirety. He sees science and rationality rather than religion as the means of human salvation
The differences between the Renaissance thinkers like Pico and modern humanists can also be seen in the work of thinkers like the existential humanist, Jean Paul Sartre. Sartre refers to the interconnection between the philosophy of existentialism and humanism in his lecture Existentialism is a Humanism ( 1946).
The philosophy that Sartre introduced the first half of the twentieth century was one that was both humanist and intensely secular. At the same time he does not offer a bright optimistic future for human beings. It is important to consider the rise of this form of humanism as it provides a point of interconnection between the optimism of the Renaissance and the stern realism of secular humanism in the twentieth century, where humankind is perceived to be alone and in search of meaning.
Very briefly, existentialism is a philosophy that can perhaps be best described in relation to the concept of teleology. The dictionary definition of teleology refers to the "…doctrine that there is design, purpose, or finality in the world"
This refers to the view that actions and intentions are aimed at goals and that life has a sense of directed purpose. The definition of teleology goes on to state that "…effects are in some manner intentional, and that no complete account of the universe is possible without reference to final causes."
In other words, this view of reality considers meaning and purpose towards a defined and defining reality as the fundamental philosophical component of life and reality. This would tend to conform to the orthodox and tradition views about life and reality which some humanists tended to reject.
For many reasons, including the repercussion of the First World War and the demise of institutional structures of meaning since the nineteenth century, the teleological view of reality and existence was questioned and even put into doubt by many modern philosophers and philosophical schools of thought. A prime example of this contrary attitude or view can be found in the existentialist school of thought and in the writings of Jean Paul Sartre. The view that life does not necessarily have a clear and definite purpose is also a central area of discourse in postmodernism and post-structuralism; particularly in the works of writers like Derrida and, to some extent, in the deconstructive writings of Martin Heidegger.
In terms of Western philosophy, Existentialism contradicts Platonic ideals and the search for the highest and transcendent good as the aim and purpose of life. The recognition of the reality of ideal forms meant that life had a higher purpose in the quest for true reality; which in turn can be related to the fundamental aims of most conventional religious systems.
This idealism has been a perennial theme of Western metaphysics until the philosopher Nietzsche began to question these assumptions. In other words, philosophy in the more traditional sense is aimed at certain goals and end points. In Plato, the state that is desired is the highest embodiment of the Ideal.
This view was echoed in both traditional and world views; that human life is directed towards achieving a higher form of good and a transcendence of the common world of imperfection.
Existentialism begins with the assumption that existence is strange and mysterious without any obvious pattern or order. To the existentialist, the individual is in a state of crisis in the search for meaning and reality. This philosophy therefore does not offer the comfort of clear aims and goals towards certain ends of traditional metaphysics. Sartre's works involve a radical questioning of the assumptions and ideologies that had been the mainstay of traditional Western metaphysics.
Sartre writes of an existential 'nausea' when we first become aware that there is in fact is no firm grounding to life or existence. When we confront reality at a deeper level we find that there is a 'nothingness' at the heart of perceived existence and not, as Aristotle and Socrates suggest, some higher good. In his work, Nausea, Sartre refers to the experience of reality without the psychological and philosophical buffer of ideological structures and interpretations. "Nausea has not left me & #8230; but I no longer have to bear it, it is no longer an illness or a passing fit: it is I" (Selection from Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea).
This describes the way that the intense awareness of existence leads to a deeper and pervasive questioning of reality.
In order to understand the existential worldview one also has to understand the social and cultural milieu in which it developed -- and this is the same milieu that spawned contemporary secular humanism. Existentialism became popular after the Second World War. After the devastation of this war there was a loss of faith in rationality and in many traditional views and ways of perceiving reality. In essence the ideals of goodness and virtue that had been accepted by traditional philosophy and theology where put into radical doubt by the horror of war and events such as the concentration camps. This led to a severe questioning of the ideologies and 'master narratives' that had led to such death and destruction. The philosophy of existentialism therefore was in part a reaction to the events and loss of faith in conventional answers in the twentieth century.
Sartre provides the link between existentialist thought and modernist secular humanism. He suggests that the term humanism can be understood in two different senses. On the one hand it refers to the supreme value and dignity of man, which would concur with the views espoused by Pico above. This is the positive view of the humanist ideal of the independent human being who makes responsible use of his intellect and reason to carry out his worldly responsibilities. This view also refers to the quotation from Pico that was cited above; namely that, "…thou art confined by no bounds; and thou wilt fix limits of nature for thyself."
In other words, Existentialism places emphasis on the fact that man is free from all restrictions and boundaries. However, and this is crucial to an understanding of modern secular humanism, this also means that as there is no God to provide guidance mankind is left to its own devices and must confront the hard questions and realities of existence and human being without flinching, as it were, and with 'authenticity. Sartre intends to emphasize the fact that secular humanism cannot rely on and form of ideology or myth to support it if it is to be truly authentic. Freedom for Sartre comes with a prices and this price is to confront reality without any preconceptions and false ideologies -- which can be a daunting process, as his book Nausea shows.
What is clear is the secular nature of Sartre's form of Existentialism, Sartre is very clear on this point and links his sense of humanism with the view that there is no 'creator' or God and that all religion is nothing more than a fiction and a lie.
Like Russell, Sartre sees this version of humanism as presupposing atheism. It is 'nothing else but an attempt to draw the full conclusions from a consistently atheistic position' (p. 56). In speaking of man as 'abandoned', Sartre means 'that God does not exist, and that it is necessary to draw the consequences of his absence right to the end' & #8230;
and "Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself."
The emergence of modern secular humanism was still linked initially to a certain extent with traditional culture and the religious background of the past. However, the twentieth century sees a radical break or shift in this relationship with the past. The long process of humanism had led to a situation where"…Heaven itself was transformed into the heavens of the astronomer and cosmologist" and " Gone was the Dantean image of human destiny . . . To live forever in a glorious paradise or a terrifying hell. Gone, too, was the comforting thought that priest and church would worry about these matters
3.1. Historical aspects; The Formalism of Secular Humanism
The formalization or institutionalization of secular humanism is one of the most important aspects of the modern secular movement as it refers to the acceptance and promulgation of the ethos of secular humanism in institutions such as universities; which in turn leads to a general acceptance and adherence to the tenets of secular humanism in the larger society. This formalization and academic acceptance is also motivated by thinkers and public figures that wrote and discussed the positive aspects of secular humanism.
The tendency towards the formalization and acceptance of this ideology began in earnest in late eighteenth-century France and early nineteenth-century Germany and was to be replicated as an intellectual tendency in nineteenth-century Britain. It became a"…broad popular movement, taking root in society and embodied in formal institutions."
As noted above, the secular humanist movement should not be understood as a single homogenous or definite organization with clear-cut directives or policies. It is a cultural and philosophical movement that emerged spontaneously and in many different forms. Secular humanism is in reality an overarching term that is also known by many other names and appellations. As Norman (2004 ) correctly states, "Such organisations did not at first make use of the terms 'humanist' and 'humanism' to describe themselves. Their preferred terms were those such as 'freethinker', 'secularist' and 'rationalist'."
In historical terms the first of these formal organizations that could be termed secular humanist were the Ethical Societies in Britain that began as a breakaway movement from the Unitarian church.
The Unitarian church should also be mentioned as a major factor in the development of this ideology. The Unitarian Church came into existence at the end of the nineteenth century and opposed many of the orthodox religious view of Christianity -- such as the Trinity. It was committed to the acceptance and toleration of many new forms of thought and speculation, which included many humanist views. This progressive and liberal ideology "…created a framework that would accept the kind of religious radicalism that humanists came to espouse in the early twentieth century. "
In essence these Ethical Societies "….gradually abandoned all religious beliefs and devoted themselves to the propagation of ethical values without any religious foundations."
The important aspect of this earlier movement was that ethical and moral values were upheld without the support or adherence to religious organizations. This secular force was strengthened as a social institution when the various societies became united under the umbrella of the Union of Ethical Societies in 1920. This Union was later to become known as the British Humanist Association in 1967.
The emergence of these formal organizations was also to lead or the popularity of thinkers and theorists on secular humanism who were to become well-known in Western society. One of these contemporary agents of secular humanism was John Dewey. However, before exploring the role of influential historical figures in the twentieth century it is perhaps appropriate at this point to summarize the important influence of science and scientific thought in the rise of secular humanism.
3.2. The Role of Science
The role of science and the scientific -- rational worldview plays a major part in the development and acceptance of secular humanism in the West. Without the widespread institutional and academic acceptance of the scientific methodology and the ideology of objective scientific fact, modern humanism in its secular sense could not have become a dominant force today.
As has already been referred to in this dissertation, the Renaissance saw the first flowerings of rational and logical thought that speculated in terms of independent thinking about the world and the universe. While early humanistic thinking was opposed by the strong religious principles and dogma of the time, this force against free thought and emergent science was to weaken as a result of a myriad of social, political, philosophical and economic factors. One of the strongest forces that led to the adoption of the scientific and humanistic ethos was the above-mentioned concept of the relativity of social reality and the questioning of fixed and immovable concepts of life and existence.
This was especially the case in the nineteenth century where new discoveries about nature and the world were being made in science -- many of which contradicted the traditional norms and values that had been promulgated by the Church for centuries. This refers in particular to the emergence of the new biology and the new psychology in the nineteenth century, which was to strongly influence the secular thinking of the twentieth century. Coupled with these was the emergence of many new disciplines which all aspired to be considered sciences in the context of the university and academic setting.
One needs only view the emergence of the psychology of the unconscious established by Freud to understand the significance of the link between the concept of science and the concept of secular humanism.
Freud's central theory revolves around the discovery of the power and significance of the human unconscious, and the way that the unconscious acts and influences our thoughts and actions. In essence, Freud put forward idea that many of our everyday thoughts, feelings and actions are the result of deep levels of consciousness and metal activity that we are not normally aware of. Freud "discovered' these theoretical concepts through the treatment of female patients who were suffering from symptoms of hysteria. He found that these symptoms were largely the result of unconscious thought and feelings that had been repressed or sublimated by the patients. He also suggested that most of these repressed thoughts were sexual in nature and were repressed or not recognized because of the restrictive and conservative nature of the society of the time.
This theory allowed us to understand facets of human behavior that otherwise may seem to be strange to irrational. "Most of personality is unconscious: we hide many unpleasant truths about ourselves from ourselves by using defense mechanisms, and we are driven by wishes, beliefs, fears, conflicts, and memories of which we are totally unaware"
In terms of society and sociological analysis the most significant aspect of the idea of the unconscious is the theory of repression. Freud's view that desires which do not accord with societal norms are 'repressed' by the individual, resulting in 'neuroses' is central to the understanding of his views on culture. The theory of repression also resulted in a certain "deterministic "views of the way in which society functions.
However, what is of significance in terms of the development of secular humanism and the role of science is not only the importance of the theory as an evidence of the human intellect discovering new and unseen realities of human nature, but that these discoveries were in line with the norms of objective science and were later to the criticized as being 'mechanistic'.
Jung, Freud's protege, was to disagree with Freud and his view of the unconscious mainly due to the fact that Freud was overly concerned with applying scientific models of logical and rational order to the human psyche. Freud was therefore criticized for being too deterministic. Part of the reason for this determinism was the requirement in all disciplines and academic fields to emulate the dominant scientific method and scientific requirement of objectivity and rationality. This example therefore stresses the importance and dominance of the scientific and rational view of reality that was a cardinal factor in the early years of the growth of secular humanism in the twentieth century.
In addition there was also the new science of society known as sociology. All of these sciences had one underlying ideological theme; namely that the human intellect and reason was capable of discovering and explicating reality independently and without the interference of religious or theological dogma. As Howard B. Radest, states in his book, The Devil and Secular Humanism: The Children of the Enlightenment (1990);
Where an earlier Humanism had found its symbols and its values in the arts, a modern Humanism was finding them in the universal impulse to bring everything under the banner of science. Indeed, nothing seemed immune to empirical inquiry and once it was tried, nothing was the same . . . not the heavens, not the earth, not animal life, not politics, not economics, not the soul, and not the church.
In general, science began providing many of the answers to the riddles and the questions of nature and life by the late 1800s. The important aspect in terms of the rise of secular humanism was that, "Everything from the creation of the world to the workings of the human mind was gradually being explained without any reference to God" and that "Science seemed to be successfully replacing religion as the final authority for truth."
This led to nineteenth and twentieth century perception that sicken has taken the place of religious and spiritual truth. The secularization of society was therefore verified by the seemingly all-embracing and apparent omnipotence of science.
Furthermore, there was also the perception in many quarters of academia and general society that "… the picture of the universe painted by Christianity and its understanding of human nature had been completely discredited by science
In terms of the effect on conventional churches and religion in the West this led in many instances to a compromise with scientific discoveries and views in order to some semblance of validity in an increasingly secular society.
3.3. Secularization in the West
A brief overview of secularization in the West is apt at this point. While the focus has been on the rise of modern humanism, one should not forget the implications and the importance of secularization. One can view this phenomenon from many perspectives.
To reiterate the ethos that underlies the origins of the secular trajectory in the west we can refer to the view of man and nature that was suggested above and which began with the Renaissance. Holbach states that, …. Instead, therefore, of seeking outside the world he inhabits for beings who can procure him a happiness denied to him by Nature let man study this nature, let him learn her laws, contemplate her energies, observe the immutable rules by which she acts: let him apply these discoveries to his own felicity and submit in silence to her mandates, which nothing can alter.
This view of atheistic materialism is continued by many thinkers in the twentieth century. For example Ludwig Feuerbach, whose criticism of religion in The Essence of Christianity "…interprets the Christian idea of God as the projection onto an imagined divine supernatural being of what are essential human qualities…"
Of course the thinking of Feuerbach lead to Karl Marx whose secular views are well-known from his view that religion is the "opiate of the masses."
Understanding the secularization of the developed countries in the Western world involves an exploration of a number or of different criteria and factors. These include the effect of the scientific revolution, industrialization and the effects of industrialization, critical thought and philosophy, as well as psychological discoveries and various cultural modes of thinking and action that laid the foundations of the modern Westerns developed societies. In other words, a comprehensive understanding of the secularization of the West would involve a discussion of a vast and complex area of knowledge that spans many disciplines.
The increase in the acceptance and the belief in the secular can be seen in numerous statistics and surveys that have been undertaken. In 1900 the estimated numbers of people in developed counties who were non-religious was a few million, while today… "the estimate is nearly one billion, a sixth of the world's population. "
It is also significant that while Christianity has shown a decline in many Western countries, Islam has shown a major growth rate.
Japan has the highest percentage of nonbelievers, amounting to about 40 million. France has the largest percentage of agnostics and atheists. Demographically, the youth in these and other Western countries are the least religious.
It is also significant that many studies emphasize that, in historical terms, until fairly recently societies in the West was deeply religious in nature. "Religious thinking, religious practices and religious institutions were once at the very centre of the life of western society, as indeed of all societies."
However, the process of secularization in Western countries was to develop roughly from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries. As Wilson ( 1996) notes, during this period, "…many unchurched people to whom religious practices and places were alien, and whose religious thinking was a mixture of odd piety, good intentions, rationalizations and superstitions, does not gainsay the dominance of religion."
Central to the decline of an ostensibly religious culture that had dominated countries like England during the Middle Ages were the changing social and economic conditions. These economic and political forces in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe "…frequently overrode God's will."
The point therefore that is central to the understanding of the development of Western secular society is that for many reasons, social, economic and philosophical, there was a movement in Western culture away for the primacy and dominance of religion in societies like Great Britain.
As Wilson states, "…until the early twentieth century, the peoples of all nations were strongly religious."
Less developed areas of the world, particularly in Africa and the East were influenced by different factors and ideals and less exposed to the ethos of industry and science. This leads to an exploration of the various causative elements that motivated the secularization of developed Western. The question that is posed by scholars is; "Why has religion, especially Christianity so swiftly collapsed in most of the developed democracies while remaining vibrant in the Third World & #8230;Why has Christianity stagnated while Islam is growing? The issues are complex, poorly researched, and not well understood."
Taking into account the above discussion it is suggested in this study that the rise of humanism and in particular secular humanism as a social and cultural force in Europe between the seventeenth and twenty-first centuries, was a central factor in the demise of religion and the increase of secularization.
While it is not possible to isolate any one single aspect as a central motivating factor in the movement towards a secular society in developed countries, yet the growth of rationality and the belief in objective science, especially in Western developed countries like the United Kingdom, had a profound effect on the attitude towards religion in the West. The Eastern and less developed countries of the world did not imbibe this strong trend towards rationality and scientific materialism to the same extent -- which is a central reason for their greater tolerance of a religious and spiritual perspective on life.
The growth of rationalist thinking is intimately connected with the increased faith in modern science and objectivity -- which runs counter to subjective perception and faith in a God that cannot be seen or objectively encountered. Scientific thought was or lead to the questioning of the basic assumptions of religious reality. These were found to be scientifically unverifiable and this in turn led to a new faith in the material and invective world. As a result people in the nineteenth century in the West began to "…act less and less in response to religious motivation."
They "…find themselves involved in rational organizations and rationally determined roles which allow small scope for such religious predilections as they might privately entertain."
Science in fact becomes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the new 'religion' in many developed countries. The acceptance of reason and rationality as the way of understanding the 'truth' of reality and existence can be seen as one of the defining characteristics of the modern Western world. "In none of the secular developed democracies does absolute belief in God exceed 50%."
An example of this process of secularization is the central scientific theories concerning human development that were posited in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Darwin's theory of evolution in his work On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859) had a far-reaching and profound effect on religious views and attitudes that is still being discussed and debated today. In essence this theory removed the necessity of a creator God. As Paul ( 2002) states, "Without Darwin's effective elimination of the need for a cognitive designer, there would be hundreds of millions fewer nonbelievers."
The fact that this theory was believed to be based on rational scientific inquiry meant that the educated public tended to accept without question the findings and the implication of Darwin's theory -- which in turn led to the greater secularization of society. It is therefore significant that a highly secular society such as Japan, "… exhibits the highest understanding of evolution while the uniquely theistic United States ranks lowest on this variable."
Another very important factor in the development of the secular West is in speculative thought and philosophy. In brief, while the West questioned religious and spiritual views of reality on the basis of reason and science, the less developed counties perceived reality mainly through traditional religious views and myths and less materialistic philosophies.
Western philosophers like Kant and Nietzsche were influential in the development of secular thought. Kant for example, "…dismissed God from human cognition and relegated access to Him to the sphere of practical ethics and moral motivation…"
Many of philosophers of the modern age tended to see any form of transcendent and idealistic thought as illusionary and a form 'ideology' or a " social construction." In other words, religious beliefs were questioned and interrogated in order to ascertain if they adhered to the stringent tenets and criteria of scientific and rational thought. One needs only to think of Nietzsche's statement that "God is dead" to realize the important part that modern thinkers and philosophers played in the secularization of the West.
When Nietzsche declares that "God is dead" his declaration means that the suprasensory, the metaphysical world has ceased to have any power over us… Nietzsche announces an overturning of the Platonic world; the "real" world has at last become a myth
Postmodern philosopher and thinkers such as Jacques Derrida have increased the extent of secularization in the West by insisting that all ideologies and religious systems are suspect in that they are in essence human conventions that are 'invented' for certain social, economic or political reasons. This is referred to in postmodern criticism as "master narratives' which are to be interrogated or 'deconstructed'.
A central and vital aspect that should be reiterated and considered in tandem with the above causative factors are the economic, social and political conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century. The First World War was possibly one of the central aspects that increased the move towards secularization in the West. The First World War was the bloodiest war ever fought and destroyed an entire generation of young men. This war destroyed forever any idea of glory or purpose in warfare and also put into question the ideal of a benevolent and compassionate God. "In 1914 Europe was strongly Christian. The shock of World War I destroyed the last vestiges of divine-right monarchy and appears to have triggered the first major decline in religious belief among the general population."
This was to be exacerbated by the Second World War.
There are many other aspects to be considered in this context; such as the economic collapse in the 1930s as well as events like the Holocaust. Many writers also attribute secularization to the increase in education standards in developed countries in that the educated are more likely to question and criticize the dominant ideas and ideologies of the time. "In general, rising levels of education and income have corresponded to higher rates of religious skepticism in the modern world…"
Western developed countries have tended in general to become more secular over the past two hundred years. There are a wide range of reasons that can be given for this change in societies that were previously essentially religious in nature. One of the central reasons for this situation is the development of rational and objective science, which questioned and in many cases rejected beliefs and views that could not be logically proven. Coupled with this were many issues and circumstances that contributed to the gradual secularization of society -- such as war and economic and political stress.
In the final analysis the secularization of the West during the twentieth century can be seen to be the related to scientific, philosophical and historical factors. It should also be noted that to speak of the West as being completely secular is not quite correct. In the United States and in other countries there is at the present time a strong resurgence of fundamental religious beliefs. Despite this, the influence of secular humanism is pervasive and has an endemic part of modern Western culture since the twentieth century. .
3.4. Influential Thinkers
There are many thinkers and philosophers that could be mentioned in terms of the rise and development of secular humanism in the twentieth century. Thinkers like Descartes have already been mentioned. Another formidable influence on the rise of this ideology was the work of Kant. His critical philosophy of life and reality was influenced by a strong sense of humanism and was highly influential in the humanist thought and trends that were to follow in the late nineteenth and twentieth century's. This refers to aspects of humanism such as its "…concern with ethics, the high values it placed upon autonomy and democracy, the centrality of rationality and the sciences, and at the same time its intellectualism and its suspicions of the sensual and the passionate in human experience."
Among the many early figures that stand out in the modern history of humanism is Charles Francis Potter. Potter was a signatory of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto (1933); as was the well-known and influential thinker and educator John Dewey and Roy Wood Sellars.
Potter founded the first Humanist church in New York City in 1929. In Potter's 1930 book Humanism: A New Religion the author states that, "Humanism is not simply another denomination of Protestant Christianity; it is not a creed; nor is it a cult. It is a new type of religion altogether."
John Dewey is an extremely important figure in the history of this ideology in the Twentieth Century. He was not only a signer of the Humanist Manifesto but he is also credited by some for having written much of it. Dewey strongly espoused the view that humanism was necessarily anti-religious in its essence and that it considered human intellect and reason as being more significant and important than any form of religious dogma. He went as far as to promote humanism as a national way of life and a worldview that should be taught and inculcated at an early age. As one commentator notes; "John Dewey helped popularize the teaching of evolution since the idea of constant change reinforced his idea of the foolishness of God and the Bible. Dewey believed in neither God nor the Bible. "
A quote from Dewey's works What Humanism Means to Me clearly shows his positive and enthusiastic endorsement of the humanistic view of reality and his denial of the relevance or the significance of religious thought and tradition."What humanism means to me is an expansion, not a contraction, of human life, an expansion in which nature and the science of nature are made the willing servants of human good."
His importance in terms of secular humanism lies to a great extent in that he was extremely influential and respected in many fields and disciplines. He was in the first instance a pragmatist and educator as well as an educational reformer. He was also well respected as a political commentator and public intellectual of note. In his philosophy he stressed experienced-based learning as opposed to rote learning. He also wrote on many other topics, including ethics, logic, metaphysics, art, and religious experience as well as war, politics, and economics.
It is interesting to note that in his earlier years Dewey was in fact a Christian idealist. However this was to change and he adopted an experimentalist philosophy that "…emphasized the scientific method and an ethics founded on "intrinsic capacities."
This of course refers to the intrinsic capabilities that he felt to be potentially accessible in every human being via the intellect and reason.
In the later part of his life he developed a humanistic concept of religion; he was a participant in many humanistic activities and was named an honorary member of the Humanist Press Association in 1936. Dewey was posthumously honored by the American Humanist Association with its Humanist Pioneer Award in 1954.
Dewey's view of God is worth referring to as an example of the humanist ethos that developed in the second half of the twentieth century. "Dewey leaned back and addressed the ceiling thoughtfully: 'God -- God is an equation of values. And 'Any activity pursued on behalf of an ideal end against obstacles, in spite of threats of personal loss, and because of convictions of its general and enduring value, is religious in quality' ."
You’re 80% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.