Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Self Created Problem Of Secular Unfairness


Christian fundis often complain about secularism's perceived unfairness towards religion, but in actuality their problem is self-created. I've made this point before that if you dilute the definition religion to mean any worldview, you open the doors to philosophy and politics potentially becoming religions. Then secularism becomes a religion, and the theists cry over the government favoring one religion(secularism) over another.

But this doesn't happen if you define religion like most people: the belief in and worship of god or gods. Sure we like to throw around the word religion to mean anything from being a devout soccer fan to obsessively following the stock market, but these aren't technical uses of the word. When we define secularism as a religion, its own definition becomes "a religion to separate religion, from religion." Since this makes no logical sense, the theist who defines secularism as a religion creates his own problem for him. Then he complains of governmental favoritism.

Since Christianity already has enough of its own internal contradictions, Christians shouldn't be defining religion in ways that create even more problems for them. 

3 comments:

  1. I also find that usually, when a Christian is complaining about "Secularism" as a religion, and the government favouring some religion over another, it usually comes down to the government failing to favour Christianity.
    Fundamentalist Christians seem to see a lack of preference for their beliefs, and not being able to impose those beliefs on others as discrimination against them and their beliefs. These people seem unable to comprehend the ridiculous nature of their claims.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's like if America doesn't have an official baseball team it is somehow unfair only to Cardinals fans. And then they complain that the government favoring no baseball team is somehow not actually neutral on baseball.

      Delete
    2. Exactly.

      It's also like a Cardinal fan being told that they cannot force other people to follow them and then claiming that is discriminating against them.

      The rationalisations always end up being ridiculous.

      Delete

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