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Inescapably Religious

Secularism is as much a religion as Christianity.

The Religion of Secularism (1)

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Romans 1.24, 25

Done with religion?
We think of secularists as people who, because they live under the sun rather than under the heavens, don’t have anything to do with religion. Secularists are persuaded that there is no God, at least, not such as they need to worry about; and they prefer to get on with their lives without reference to faith and all its burdensome baggage.

The secularist is convinced, as the late Carl Sagan so glibly put it, that “The cosmos is all there is or was or ever will be.” Life has no ultimate meaning, and there is no life beyond this temporal and material one. We must face this reality bravely, and make do as best we can, without the crutch of belief in some non-existent or irrelevant deity.

Religion is of marginal value, if any, according to the secular worldview, and we’ll all be better off as soon as religion’s sway over our lives is eliminated.

If only it were that simple.

But wait…
What, after all, is religion? Religion is a system of beliefs, focused on some ultimate being or notion of what is true or good, which is sustained by disciplines and practices, fueled by hope, and issues in forms of behavior, all in the belief that these are the best ways to realize the promise of life – however that promise is conceived. Religious people believe so strongly in their convictions, that they undertake great exertions to propagate their faith, and to defend it against other religions.

Religions orbit around unseen worlds, whether of places and beings, or merely ideas. They depend on faith and hope, and they commit adherents to certain rituals, routines, and rites which they consider important to achieving the good they seek.

But wait a second: Doesn’t this describe secularism as well, and those who proudly identify themselves as secularists?

The secularist believes in some unseen, unknown, and ultimate truth or good, the attainment of which he hopes for earnestly, believes in passionately, and orders his life by routines and disciplines to achieve. It doesn’t matter that the good he seeks is a material one – a world of equal justice, say, or fair distribution of resources, or scientific and technology solutions to all our ills. These are as much unseen realities as the Christian’s vision of heaven and the Kingdom.

Or the secularist’s hoped-for good may be merely more personal – a quiet retirement in comfy surroundings, without a care in the world. This too, however, is but a vision, an unseen but longed-for prospect which commands his devotion, fuels his hope, and dictates his conduct.

Whatever the good he seeks, the secularist believes this is what he must devote his life to attaining. He disciplines his daily activities accordingly, fixing in his imagination the vision of what the as-yet-unseen good life will look like once he has achieved it. The material cosmos may be all the secularist has to work with, but he approaches his particular vision of that cosmos, and his place in it, as an enterprise of faith, ordered by disciplines and rites, in the devoted pursuit of an unseen idea of what is true or good, which he is determined to achieve. And secularists today are the most fervent, unbending, determined, and ubiquitous proponents of their worldview, having captured all the major bully pulpits of the land to proclaim and inculcate their religious vision and way of life.

Secularists, because they are made in the image of God, are inescapably religious. If they will not worship God, they will worship something else as God.

Not the right course
Secularists may insist that they aren’t religious, but what they mean by that is they aren’t religious in the same way you and I are – believing in God and Jesus Christ and the life of worship, holiness, and self-denying service that entails.

But secularists are religious nonetheless, and it behooves us, as ambassadors for Jesus Christ, to understand as much as we can about their religion. For, since they do not believe in God, they must believe in something else as if that something else were God. And this means they are living a lie. Oh, their lives may be filled with fun and things, and they may be very confident of their views, and insist that they’re doing just fine, thank you. But, in the larger scheme of things, they’re like the man who has fallen from a tall building and reports, en route to the ground, that the trip is exciting, the breezes are great, and he’s certain, therefore, that he’s on the right course.

But secular religion is anything but a right course in life. The secularist’s chosen lifestyle, all the devotion to his favored ideals, and the discipline with which he pursues them, may, indeed, seem right to him. But the end of this course is death, as the Christian knows (Prov. 14.12; Rom. 6.23) – vanity of vanity, and feeding on the wind.

The better we understand the secular religion of our unbelieving friends, the more we will be able to help them see the folly of having exchanged the truth about God for the lie of whatever substitute deity has captured their imaginations and is dragging them down to hell.

For reflection
1.  What are some ideas of ultimate truth or goodness to which secular people subscribe? That is, what is the secularist’s hope? How can you see that these ideals play the same role in the secularist worldview as God does in the Christian worldview?

2.  The Christian life involves the practice of certain disciplines that aid us in realizing our hope of knowing, enjoying, and glorifying God. Such as? Isn’t this also true of those who adhere to a secular worldview? Do they not also hope to realize their vision of what is true or good? And do that not discipline their lives accordingly? Give some examples of the disciplines that characterize a secularist’s daily life.

3.  Secularists will not agree that their worldview is religious. Does that make it any less so? Explain.

Next steps – Preparation: How could you find out what your secular friends believe? Everyone believes in something, and what we believe in plays a large part in how we live. See what you can find out about the beliefs of your secular friends.

T. M. Moore

For a more complete study of the book of Ecclesiastes, download our Scriptorium series on Ecclesiastes by clicking here. Ecclesiastes is an excellent book to share with an unbelieving friend, as it confronts all the idols and vain hopes of unbelief, exposing their folly and holding out the hope of life in God alone. We’ve prepared a verse translation of Ecclesiastes which is suitable for sharing with believers and unbelievers alike. Order your copy of Comparatio, by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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