I just had someone tell me that secular values are recent and fleeting, and that we will soon all be back under Christian jurisprudence.
That is, unless, of course, we fail to protect ourselves from the current and more immediate forms of totalitarianism in our midst.
I simply assumed that everyone knew what secularism is and had a clue, if not a detailed history, of what a society looks like with secular values…
Lettuce begin!
1800s BC – 400s BC, Athenian Law
– laws and ethics partially detach from the priests, meaning people are judged on consequence and harm, not as an offence to faith
– social order and reason determined what offences were not relevant to religious precepts
1 BC – 3 AD, The Roman Empire
– civic law is superior to religious lore and public authority requires no gods
– Euripides’ Medea is a great story of the parallel laws of gods and of men
1100s AD – 1300s AD, Medieval Christendom
– natural reason vs divine revelation: what we can figure out by ourselves vs what we cannot understand even with faith
– secularism develops to fill in the gaps of theological frameworks
1300s – 1500s, The Renaissance!
– moral authority is under human purview, not from theological doctrine
– setting precedent on prior experience and applying deductive reason
– the beginnings of a human-centred moral imperative
1500s – 1600s, Protestantism & Power
– there was no way to gauge the morality or ethics of Protestants vs Catholics: secular court was the only way to judge, and this was the beginning of ‘impartiality’
– religious power reduced by necessity to preserve society: religious people all have this proclivity toward mutual annihilation. Avoid.
– toleration became critical which is now the foundation of our multicultural ideology
1600s – 1700s, The (✨SECULAR✨) Enlightenment
– reasoning skills are key to discerning least social and individual harm
– individual rights removes group culpability for a single person; each person has the right to be heard without interference
– freedom of conscience: we are each free to believe as we wish without interference. This is the pathway that unscrupulous ideologues are using to undermine secular societies globally
– the social contract: we benefit from society so we agree to be ruled in return for good treatment and conditions.I do hope the Australian government understand the conflict between their lack of action and protection and the consequences for social integrity which they have created…
1800s, Liberalism & Science
– education ensures students learn rational thinking and impartiality
– science ensures unbiased evidence
– liberty for everyone results in the equality we have today, which some unscrupulous agents are using to silence others i.e. cancel them or otherwise terrorise them into silence. Not quite ‘equal’ any more…
– ethics: the reduction of harm, increasing usefulness and purpose, and ensuring social wellbeing
– slavery abolished in 1834
1900s, It’s all in the Constitution
– institutional separation of church and state
– secularism became the mechanics of a society, not an ideology
– the administration of the country is secular: everyone gets a fair go
2000s, Rose Coloured Spectacles
– diversity which does not register religious concerns: let us not concern ourselves with how fascist religious leaders are inciting violence against us because our values are different and everyone has their own opinion anyway (too bad about Bondi, I guess…)
– empowerment vs equality: the playing field is no longer equal due to squeaky wheels getting the oil and guns being registered to people who should not be outside of a jail cell
– bolstering secular society with strategic frameworks to protect national identities: banning religious garb, forcing national language learning, educating kids in critical thinking and harm (yay France, Denmark, Poland, etc but horrific for Sweden as they didn’t get it right in time)
– secularism: a shared civil framework rather than an ideology, a distinction which newsertainment, our leaders, parents and teachers fail to teach us and our kids, much less new comers.
Thank-you to ChatGTP and DuckDuckGo Search Assist. AI is an icky artist and horribly clumsy writer, but an efficient librarian. I added my two cent’s worth to the above, and I hope this information provides clarity.
Want a way out of this mess? Vote for the pollie who focusses most, if not explicitly, on secular values and protecting them. Ignore the rest. They have rose coloured specs on.
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