Religion and Secularisation

• Secularisation

  - The proportion of people in the UK who consider themselves a Christian is steadily declining. This has not happened before.
• Britain as a secular society: pre-reformation europe

  - People's lives and thinking were strongly controlled by the Church.

  - The monarch dictated the official religion and those who dissented were liable to torture and death.
• Britain as a secular society: post-Reformation, 18th century

  - Emphasis on reason, evidence + scientific thought.

  - Encouraged a more individualistic approach.

  - Possible to be openly atheist or agnostic.
• Britain as a secular society: post-reformation, 19th century

  - Laws permitted greater religious freedom.

  - Horrors of the two world wars in the 20th century and challenge to religious authority experienced in the 1960s decreased the number of those who attended church and who regarded themselves as 'practising' Christians.
• Britain as a secular society: late 20th century

  - Scandals within the Church have led to growing disillusionment with traditional Christianity.
• The replacement of religion as the source of truth and moral values

  - Traditionally, ideas of right and wrong = closely linked to religion.

  - Many Christians, if asked for the course of morality, would refer to the Bible.

  
  

  - However, the development of social sciences has weakened the notion of objective morality and its links to religion.

  - Marx regarded religion and its views on morality as a social and political tool used by those in power to control the masses.

  - Freud claimed that it satisfied a psychological need.
• Modern secular humanism

  - The belief that people can live morally good lives without religion.
• Religion and the Public Sphere

  - The public sphere is the domain of human activity that deals with how people live together and interact.
• Pre-enlightenment answers to public sphere questions

  - We could turn to religion to answer any questions, and everyone would agree this was the right approach.

  - Aquinas wrote that there was "one universal truth from scripture and doctrine" that society should live by.
• How did religion lose its position in the public sphere?

  - Protestant reformation and the ideas of Martin Luther.

  - Different points of view could now exist.
• The second big challenge to religious supremacy

  - Powerful thinkers in the 19th century: Marx, Engels, Feurerbach, Nietzsche.
• What role should religion play in the public sphere now?

  - People should get to decide what they believe.

  - Religion is still in the public sphere, for example, the British national anthem references God, we have religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter, religion is seen in art, etc.
• Punishments for Atheism

  - Throughout most of history, being an atheist, or at least publicly being atheist, was against the law.

  - 1921 was the last imprisonment in the UK of someone who insulted religion.
• Which events triggered atheism?

  - Due to either the law or atheism being highly stigmatised, until pretty recently expressions of atheism tended to be polite and rare.

  - More people became atheists.
• New Atheism

  - Four horsemen: Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett.

  - Beliefs added to traditional atheism:

  1) Being religious is an irrational position- it isn't possible to believe in God if you are someone who is well-informed and thinks clearly.

  2) Religion is morally flawed- it makes people behave less well and causes many serious problems for society.
• Being religious is an irrational position- evidence, arguments and quotes to support this claim

  - The whole point of religious faith is that it does not depend on rational justification. The rest of us are just expected to defend our prejudices, but asking a religious person is infringing religious liberty.

  - No difference was shown between patients who were prayed for and those who were not in the Great Prayer Experiment.
• Religion is morally flawed- evidence, arguments and quotes to support this claim

  - US supreme court ruled that a church should be exempt from the law against taking hallucinogenics.

  - Christian groups getting angry at anti-discrimination rules. They can sue on grounds of freedom of religion.

  - Swinburne attempted to justify the Holocaust on the grounds that it gave the Jews a wonderful opportunity to be courageous and noble.

  - Violence generally has roots in religion.

  - Suicide bombings driven by religious ideology.
• Criticisms of New Atheism: Main groups

  - Christians who dislike the fact that atheists are being increasingly active and confident in their criticisms about religion.

  - Other atheists.
• Atheist criticisms of New Atheism: Criticism 1

  - The fact that these criticisms are often offensive or hurtful to religious people means that they should not be expressed.

  
  

  Response of new atheists:

  - No-win situation. It is impossible to criticise religion without seeming rude.

  
  

  Own opinion:

  - You can express your opinion but you can't force it on people. Valid points can be made, but religion is an identity as well as an ideology.
• Atheist criticisms of New Atheism: Criticism 2

  - Even if religion is false, it's still true that it makes people behave better - so atheists shouldn't criticise in case more atheists are made.

  
  

  Response of new athiests:

  - Religion does good and bad. We can still criticise religion. Just because religion is useful doesn't mean it's true. To put this into context, Hamas is useful in providing social services, but at the same time carried out terrorist attacks.

  
  

  Own opinion:

  - You can be moral and behave well without being religious, however, religion created and set the standard for most morals and gives people more motivation to be moral.
• Atheist criticisms of New Atheism: Criticism 3

  - The tone of new atheism is counter productive- even if we wanted to make more people atheists, the aggressive criticisms of religion just end up making people even more defensive of their religion than they were before.

  
  

  Response of new atheists:

  - It is possible for people to be shown contradictions and their faith goes. People are inclined to doubt things.

  - New atheism is successful as people frequently lose their faith.

  
  

  Own opinion:

  - I agree, however people will continue to aggressively criticise atheism.
• Christian criticism of new atheism: McGrath's criticism


  1) The New Atheists are attacking a version of religion that is only believed by a tiny number of religious fundamentalists, not most ordinary, moderate Christians.

  2) New Atheists recreate many of the intolerant and aggressive attitudes that they criticise in religious people.
• New Atheists' response to McGrath's criticism

  1) The kind of sophisticated theology that academic theologians like McGrath discuss has nothing to do with the kind of religion ordinary people believe in.

  2) Actually, even mainstream religious figures have said plenty of mistaken and immoral things.
• Christian responses to secularisation

  - The "Fresh Expressions" project.

  - House Churches.

  - Prosperity Gospel.

  - Liberation Theology.
• Fresh Expressions

  - The Church of England noticed that many people were no longer engaging with traditional forms of Christianity, such as Church on a Sunday morning.

  - New forms of the Church to help the community engage more.

  - Made to integrate into everyday lives, for example, a cafe setting or a soft play centre.
• House Churches

  - Early Christians met together in each others' houses.

  - Many people think the move away from house churches was actually a mistake and has contributed to Christianity's decline.

  - They argue that Christianity needs to go back to its roots in order to become popular again.

  - House churches are:

  - Non-hierarchical, no formal structure, focus on individual healing, no doctrine or required beliefs to be a member, local and independent.
• Criticisms and challenges for house churches

  - No trained religious figure. Progression can halt, misinterpretations can occur, and so can heracy.

  - Commitment, organisation and consistency are needed.
• The Prosperity Gospel

  - A form of Christianity which teaches that strong faith and good works will be rewarded by God with wealth and status.

  - A vast majority of Christians strongly condemn this, but it is becoming increasingly popular- especially in America.

  - The Pope condemned it.
• Pastors in the Prosperity Gospel's tactics

  - Ask for donations with the promise that there will be an end result of wealth coming back to you.

  - This comes from people with positions of authority, so people buy into it. It can be seen as a solution to people's concerns.
• Liberation Theology

  - A branch of Christianity that argues Christianity needs to become politically active on behalf of the poor and oppressed.
• Modern Christian attitudes to wealth

  - There is nothing wrong in itself with being rich, but Christians must be aware of people became rich and how they behave afterwards.

  - Seeking to acquire a lot of money may well come from greed, which is a sin. The Bible states that "for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil".

  - Rich people should act charitably and generously with their wealth.

  - Jesus taught that people should help those in need.