U73611 Issues in Contemporary Religion

U73611 Issues in Contemporary Religion

Week Six: Secularization and the New Atheism

Week Six: Secularization and the New Atheism

Don’t confuse:Don’t confuse:

Secularization: the process by which religion can come to lose its relevance, power, influence and authority in the modern world

Secularism: an active attempt to remove religion from the world

Secularization: the process by which religion can come to lose its relevance, power, influence and authority in the modern world

Secularism: an active attempt to remove religion from the world

Doubt in religion:Doubt in religion:

Begins in the enlightenment Atheists such as Voltaire David Hume 1711-1776 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

1779

Begins in the enlightenment Atheists such as Voltaire David Hume 1711-1776 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

1779

David Hume 1779David Hume 1779

DialoguesDialogues

Published posthumously because controversial

Polytheism > Monotheism Strong philosophical arguments against

religion

Published posthumously because controversial

Polytheism > Monotheism Strong philosophical arguments against

religion

Auguste Comte 1798-1857Auguste Comte 1798-1857

Founder of sociology Society moves through three phases:

theological, metaphysical, scientific

Founder of sociology Society moves through three phases:

theological, metaphysical, scientific

Karl Marx 1818-1883Karl Marx 1818-1883

Religion is the ‘opium of the people’ It alienates people from the realities of their

oppression by promising rewards in the never never

Religion will simply disappear following a move to a communist ‘mode of production’

Religion is the ‘opium of the people’ It alienates people from the realities of their

oppression by promising rewards in the never never

Religion will simply disappear following a move to a communist ‘mode of production’

Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-90Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-90

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

The Gay Science, Section 125

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

The Gay Science, Section 125

Max Weber 1864-1920Max Weber 1864-1920

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 1904/5

Protestantism lent itself to the formation of capitalism

Science as a Vocation 1918 Science ‘disenchants’ the world Modernity: calculation, rationalization,

profit and loss etc

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 1904/5

Protestantism lent itself to the formation of capitalism

Science as a Vocation 1918 Science ‘disenchants’ the world Modernity: calculation, rationalization,

profit and loss etc

Secularization:Secularization:

The dominant view in European Sociology (of religion) since the 1960s

Sec IS happening albeit at different rates Modernity is incompatible with religion Religion WILL disappear

The dominant view in European Sociology (of religion) since the 1960s

Sec IS happening albeit at different rates Modernity is incompatible with religion Religion WILL disappear

Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann

Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann

Religion is a social construction Offers a ‘sacred canopy’ that protects

against existential angst Competition brings danger - not all can be

true Pluralism drives secularization Pluralism derives from modernity - allows

free movement of people

Religion is a social construction Offers a ‘sacred canopy’ that protects

against existential angst Competition brings danger - not all can be

true Pluralism drives secularization Pluralism derives from modernity - allows

free movement of people

Bryan WilsonBryan Wilson

Secularization is a fundamental part of modernity

Religion does not necessarily disappear It loses its social significance

Secularization is a fundamental part of modernity

Religion does not necessarily disappear It loses its social significance

Why?Why?

Political power is freed from religious sanction

Knowledge obtained through empirical enquiry - eg science

We organize ourselves according to rational principles

Political power is freed from religious sanction

Knowledge obtained through empirical enquiry - eg science

We organize ourselves according to rational principles

EvidenceEvidence

By every measure Church attendance in the UK is falling

1851 Victorian census Sunday March 30th 47-51% of British population attended

Church that day 2000 Church attendance 9.55% (Brierley)

By every measure Church attendance in the UK is falling

1851 Victorian census Sunday March 30th 47-51% of British population attended

Church that day 2000 Church attendance 9.55% (Brierley)

What about America?What about America?

Religion seems to be extremely healthy in terms of influence, diversity, attendance

In surveys 40% say they attend church regularly

Head-counts show number is nearer 20% Why do Americans inflate attendance?

Religion seems to be extremely healthy in terms of influence, diversity, attendance

In surveys 40% say they attend church regularly

Head-counts show number is nearer 20% Why do Americans inflate attendance?

USAUSA

Is sec happening but slowly? Is sec not happening at all? Is sec, therefore, a European phenomenon?

Is sec happening but slowly? Is sec not happening at all? Is sec, therefore, a European phenomenon?

What about:What about:

New Religious Movements, New Age, Alternative Spiritualities?

Discourse of re-enchantment? Are we moving away from top-down

religion to reflexively constructed religions of the self?

New Religious Movements, New Age, Alternative Spiritualities?

Discourse of re-enchantment? Are we moving away from top-down

religion to reflexively constructed religions of the self?

The New AtheismThe New Atheism

The New Atheism is:The New Atheism is:

An aggressive form of secularism A loose agglomeration of scientists, philosophers,

left-wing political commentators Regard theistic religion to be untenable in the light

of modern science Regard religious certainty as an obstacle to the

advance of knowledge and the cause of moral ‘evils’

An aggressive form of secularism A loose agglomeration of scientists, philosophers,

left-wing political commentators Regard theistic religion to be untenable in the light

of modern science Regard religious certainty as an obstacle to the

advance of knowledge and the cause of moral ‘evils’

New Atheists include:New Atheists include:

Richard Dawkins Christopher Hitchens A.C. Grayling John Humphries Derren Brown Philip Pullman Jonathan Miller

Richard Dawkins Christopher Hitchens A.C. Grayling John Humphries Derren Brown Philip Pullman Jonathan Miller

In the God DelusionIn the God Delusion

Dawkins ridicules philosophical arguments for the existence of God

Argues that many atrocities have been caused by religionists

Argues the case for reason and, in particular, for Darwinian evolution

Regards religion as a meme - a ‘virus of the mind’

Dawkins ridicules philosophical arguments for the existence of God

Argues that many atrocities have been caused by religionists

Argues the case for reason and, in particular, for Darwinian evolution

Regards religion as a meme - a ‘virus of the mind’

HoweverHowever

Dawkins never defines religion (his target is Evangelical Christianity)

The existence of God cannot be proved experimentally - therefore atheism is a faith

In a meaningless universe why is it meaningful to conduct science?

Isn’t science just a meme?

Dawkins never defines religion (his target is Evangelical Christianity)

The existence of God cannot be proved experimentally - therefore atheism is a faith

In a meaningless universe why is it meaningful to conduct science?

Isn’t science just a meme?

Many scientists are religiousMany scientists are religious

From Newton to the present day Only an incompatibility between a literal

reading of the Bible and science Religious affiliation is more often a matter

of affect than a rationally arrived decision Thus, Dawkins should read more in the

Study of Religion!

From Newton to the present day Only an incompatibility between a literal

reading of the Bible and science Religious affiliation is more often a matter

of affect than a rationally arrived decision Thus, Dawkins should read more in the

Study of Religion!