The Flawed Argument Against Secularism

You have all heard the hype.  Every year the Fox News Channel (it pains me to even write that oxymoron of a title to describe a television a station full of slimy political manipulators in journalist clothing) celebrates their imaginary “War on Christmas” where they tell you what atheists think and why they’re wrong, even though no atheists I know think anything like that.  And you’ve all heard of the “War on Christianity” which we are all apparently engaged in, each and every atheist plotting the next way we are going to destroy Christianity.

Now, to be fair, some atheists do like the idea of ridding the world of religion altogether.  I, myself, don’t think it would be a bad thing any more than I think it would be a bad thing to rid the world of charlatan psychics, faith healers, holistic medicine and other such voodoo tripe with no purpose other than to separate the gullible from their money, sometimes at the cost of human lives and health.  But I would like to get rid of religion through education.  I have no desire to persuade people to give up their petty superstitions through legislation and brute force, nor does any other atheist I know.  Even Richard Dawkins, who is very against religion, would never condone a literal “war on religion” where we force people to give up the various baubles, trinkets and silly beliefs that make them feel good about themselves.  No atheist I have ever talked to or heard about would condone such a travesty of justice, a sacrifice if liberty to get rid of religion.

So what is this war everyone is talking about?  The movement goes by the name, “Secularism”.  A strict definition of secularism from Webster is, “indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations”.  It seems most Christians take that as meaning “to do away with religion” or “to shun those who are religious”.  That is total hogwash.  As usually Christians have redefined what we are saying to make us out to be attacking them.  You see, Christians seem to have this primal need to feel persecuted, whether they are truly being persecuted or not.  More often than not the thing that makes them feel persecuted is being told they can’t persecute someone else.  That is exactly the case here.

Religion is a very personal thing between an individual and whatever deity or deities they believe in.  Religion belongs in a church.  That is not to say that I think religious people should not be able to speak about their religion outside of their church or their home, and that is not what secularism is about, another false claim religious people fighting secularism tend to make.  In fact, the false claims about secularism are so numerous that some of them are outright moronic.  One Catholic cardinal, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, recently went on a tirade about the evils of secularism.  He felt the need to point out that “Indeed, in the last century, most violence was perpetrated by secular states on their own people.”  I noticed he didn’t say much about the centuries between the foundation of the Catholic Church and the last century.  Nor did he mention the rampant anti-Semitism within the Catholic Church which ended only in the middle of the last century.  Nor did he mention the ongoing persecution of homosexuals, nor the Catholic view that women are somehow less than men, nor the massive cover up of sexual abuse within the Catholic church where the church repeatedly chose to protect a few priests rather than the hundreds of children they abused.  No, we are supposed to believe that a lack of beliefs causes violence because secularist China has a terrible human rights history.  And we are supposed to just ignore 8 year old girls being legally raped by their husbands in Yemen, the fact that Sunni leaders in Iraq started getting arrested by rival Shiite members a single day after the United States withdrew, Saudi women being beheaded for witchcraft or adultery or an Iranian women being stoned to death for adultery, all under Sharia (religious) law.  We are also supposed to ignore the various genocides in Africa over the last few decades, in Rwanda, which is predominantly Christian, Darfur, which is predominantly Muslim and, of course, Joseph Kony, the self proclaimed “spokesperson of God”.  The fact of the matter is that there have been more atrocities committed within the last 50 years by religious countries than over the past century by secularist countries, and let’s not forget the fact that while the Rwandan genocide was not perpetrated by any church, the Roman Catholic church was faulted for failing to condemn the genocide.  Apparently those in the Roman Catholic church can only see violence in secular countries.

Clearly Cardinal Dipshit didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but let’s put a few nails in that coffin, just to be sure.  What countries in the world have the most people who claim no belief in any gods or spirit forces?  Surely they’ll be the worst of the worst.  According to Wikipedia, topping the list is France at 33%.  I stand corrected.  There’s a group of warlords for you.  You drop a bomb on France they’ll pick up the pieces, glue it back together and send it back to you with a note apologizing for breaking your bomb.  Next on the list is the Czech Republic at 30%.  A 2011 census puts 79.4% of the population at being agnostic, atheist or irreligious.  Boy, we’re really getting into some human rights nightmares there.    Next we have the Netherlands and Belgium tied at 27%.  Another rough bunch, clearly.  Estonia is next at 26%.  We’ve all heard of the atrocities in Estonia, right?  Me neither.

Clearly Cardinal Dumbass is confusing “secular” with “communist”, as many Christians like to do.  Or they throw Hitler in as an atheist.  Forget the fact that he was raised Roman Catholic, died Roman Catholic (he never denounced his membership in the church and was never excommunicated and, thus, WAS a member of the Roman Catholic Church at the time of his death), was backed by several high members of the Catholic Church (Cardinals Faulhaber and Bertram congratulated him on surviving an assassination attempt), had communications with the Pope personally and never once declared himself to be an atheist.  In truth, this is a little nugget Christians like to pull out of their asses to support the unfounded belief that secularism leads to evil.  There has never been any evidence to support this belief, so instead they say misleading things like, “Indeed, in the last century, most violence was perpetrated by secular states on their own people.”  The truth is the most secular countries in the world are some of the most peaceful.

So, what is this secularism that everyone keeps talking about which leads to such great evil?  It is nothing more than taking one person’s religion out of everyone’s government.  It is the opposite of Sharia Law.  It is, quite simply, the rejection of religious doctrine in public policy.  You can’t teach my children that the world is 6,000 years old because that’s stupid.  You can’t make laws that say marriage is between one man and one woman because it’s none of your damned business what two or more adult human beings do.  It is the fight for justice “for all”, not just “for those who think like me”.  And what to anti-secularists have to argue against secularism with?  Lies, deceit, falsehood and dishonesty.  Arguments like, “If you let two men marry what’s to say a man can’t marry a horse?”  How about the fact that nobody is arguing for a man marrying a horse?  How about the “two consenting adults” part of what gays want?  How about you stop being so damned obtuse and just come out and say, “My religious views dictate that I dislike this.”

The really sad thing is that I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a Christian give an honest argument without any form of deceit.  The Christian population should be ashamed of themselves for the silver tongued serpents they have all become.  There is not an honest argument out there for why gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry.  “It will harm traditional marriage!”  Will I have to divorce my wife and marry a man, tow goats and a little boy if gays get the right to marry?  No.  Does ANYONE even WANT that?  No.  “It will harm traditional family values!”  Is there ANY evidence to support that?  No.  Children raised in the homes of same sex couples are just as stable as any other children.  And what the hell are “family values” anyway?  The divorce rate is right around 50%.  How does that fit into the “traditional family”?  And what if I don’t want to follow someone else’s “tradition”?  Why is that anyone’s business?  THIS is EXACTLY what secularism is fighting.  It is fighting the persecution of those not of the prominent religious view, the same reason people came to the American Colonies in the first place.