Secularism: Staging-Post on the Road Back to Paganism

Secularism promises a neutral public space in which people of all religions and those with none can live together in peace. This is a compelling vision, which raises the hope that conflicts between all religions and ideologies will be overcome and that a new more advanced civilization will emerge. Who would not be in favor of that?

Over the last hundred years or so, however, that hopeful vision has not materialized. Rather than seeing greater harmony in secular societies, we have witnessed more community breakdown. We also notice that the greatest losses of life in the twentieth century (Mao Tse-tung: 70 million deaths; Stalin: 20-40 million deaths; Hitler: 11-12 million deaths; Pol Pot: 1-2 million deaths...) have been inspired by secular ideologies, not religious ones. The atrocities that human beings commit against each other continue apace, and secularism is at a loss to know what to say about them. "It is the work of a few rogues" sounds less plausible every time we hear it. The incoherence of secularism also means that it cannot withstand determined pressure groups or totalitarian ideologies.

I believe secularism in the West is really a combination of Christianity and paganism, with the proportions shifting over the years from the former to the latter. Secularism does not supply values of its own but borrows them from Christianity (human rights, care for minorities, freedom of speech, toleration of differences, etc.) or paganism (fascination with astrology and ever more extreme forms of entertainment, lower views of marriage, higher views of other relationships, openness to abortion/infanticide, euthanasia, etc.). Credit is rarely given to these sources, and it is only as the proportion of paganism has increased that the true nature of secularism is becoming more apparent.

The strongly Christian content of early forms of secularism gave it a veneer of plausibility. It also made it very hard for Christians to contest it. When we have tried to do so, it seemed we were arguing against many of our own values, which to some extent we were. It has also made us slow to see how secularism has become increasingly antagonistic to Christianity. In the end, the secular claim of neutrality cannot be valid since, "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God..." (Rom 8:7).

At this stage in its development, however, the pagan content is much more obvious. The new secular morality looks increasingly like the old pagan morality. Many of the ethical developments that have been presented as progress look ever more like regress. And whilst first century pagan ethics often included an expectation of judgment beyond the grave, many neo-pagans have no such expectation, leaving them with only a "don't get caught" morality. Keep reading