Video: What Is Secularism?

What is secularism, or more accurately the assertion that religious people cannot ever be secularist, is one of the things that keeps being said to me. Essentially the assertion proves they need an answer to the question above.

Check out my most recent comment below – that a religious secularist was a contradiction in terms and Muslims are all a threat.

The National Secular Society shared on twitter today a short video that explains atheists, theists, religious and the non religious can support a secular state.

Naturally there will be tensions and issues that need resolving – the principle of religious freedom, non state preference or penalty for a faith, and universal human rights that no one is exempt from will be factors just as freedom from a religion should be too.

Such political conflict is inevitable in a democracy – key is using the political and legal process to resolve. Rather than the threat of mob violence or the suggestion that others sensibilities matter more than the freedoms we have in talking about religion.

Egypt, where Coptic churches are being burned down as civil war becomes the bloody reality between Islamists and military security power, is one of many examples where a functioning democratic state is one not to be taken for granted here in the United Kingdom.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury recently stated that for British Christians to say they were persecuted with hurt sensibilities was hyperbole and insulting to those who were suffering real persecution. He remarked they need to grow up. [Source: Daily Telegraph]

Secularists need to be grown up too – theocrats are going to be forever pushing at the boundaries, and we have to be careful that the wall of separation remains strong, fortified where needed, and that we do not leave the rampart unguarded.

We can do this as defenders of religious freedom too while still wanting to be free from religion.