Two Cheers for Secularism

It is often that we live in a world that is becoming increasingly secularized. Religious believes are supposed to lament this fact and non-believers to applaud it. But suppose there are values in the secular stance that are essentially and profoundly religious? In which case, to write off the whole secular enterprise would be shallow in the extreme. In fact Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most devout and passionate Christians of the 20th century, who was killed for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler, did think that the secular movement that has developed since the 15th century should not be interpreted as anti-religious. On the contrary, it has been teaching people to live as fully responsible human beings aware of our strengths and what we can achieve as well as our weaknesses. However, from the perspective off a person with religious faith, the loss of a transcendent order giving a divine meaning and purpose to human existence cannot be contemplates without a poignant sense of loss. ... Our hope is that this book, written from a variety of standpoints, atheist, agnostic and religious and from within religion, from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, will provoke people to be more critical both about the alleged secularism of our times and also of our received religious heritage. We have to make up our own minds. We have no other option. But the contributors to this volume could go beyond this in agreeing that this freedom of choice is not just a necessity but a blessing. And this, I suppose, is why we would all, or nearly all, want to give two cheers for secularism. For the emphasis upon the liberty and profound responsibility of individual choice, is one of the most significant consequences of secularization. -- from Introduction (p. 7 & p. 10).