Abstract

In Praise of Secularism

The author calls upon Americans who support secularism to speak up against attempts by the Christian right to blur the line between church and state. It is no secret that the Bush Administration is engaged in the most radical assault on the separation of church and state in American history. The apostles of religious correctness never hesitate to broadcast their contempt for the Republic's secular laws and traditions. It is equally evident that most Democrats are too terrified of being seen as antireligious to acknowledge that the very survival of America's secular government may be at stake in the 2004 election. The campaign offers the perfect opportunity to re-educate Americans about a heritage that has been denigrated not only by relentless attacks from the religious right but also by the failure of public schools to foster awareness of the nation's secular roots, embedded in a Constitution that omits any mention of God and instead assigns supreme power to "We the People." The problem, of course, is not religion as a spiritual force but religion melded with political ideology and political power. The attack on science is a prime issue for secularists not because religion and science are necessarily incompatible but because particular forms of religious belief--those that claim to have found the one true answer to the origins and ultimate purpose of human life--are incompatible not only with science but with democracy.