Secular religions

Secular religion is a term referring to ideologies or philosophies that have no spiritual, supernatural, or religious components, but which the speaker claims mimic the forms of religious institutions.
Various elements of religion can be replaced or mimicked. This includes the philosophical basis of religion as an attempt to provide meaning and metaphysical underpinning, including providing impetus for moral behavior and good deeds. But it can also involve mimicking the ceremonial and social aspect of religion, replacing gatherings for worship with other regular gatherings and communal experiences, and replacing religious rituals for life events such as marking births, marriages, and deaths.
Nevertheless, the very concept of "secular religion" may be of doubtful validity, as it may be a simple oxymoron.
==Atheism as a religion==
 
This is one of the most commonly encountered examples of this trend. Critics of atheism, usually conservative/fundamentalist Christians, assert that atheism itself is a religious belief. It is somewhat bizarre that people who cherish so strongly the sanctity of their own beliefs should characterize something so alien to them as being a religion. One possibility is that they are so entrenched in their own religious mindset that they are unable to comprehend the idea of a non-religious belief. More likely, though, is that they believe they are pointing out some deep hypocrisy, in that atheists claim to reject religion while actually practicing it. (Then again, that could just loop back around to religious people finding non-religious worldviews inconceivable.)
For atheism to be considered a religion involves stretching the definition of religion to its loosest possible meaning — something like "a belief based on faith", in this case faith that there is no God. Even this is tenuous, for while some atheists have a strong conviction (arguably equivalent to religious faith) that God does not exist, an atheistic (or at least agnostic) viewpoint can also be achieved from taking the scientific (and therefore irreligious) attitude of only accepting as real things that are observable based on evidence. The argument can be further refuted by analogy. If disbelief in God is a religion, then so is disbelief in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, unicorns, and leprechauns.Religion of Atheism by Adrian Barnett (archived from February 27, 2010). The comparisons "Atheism is a religion like baldness is a hair color" and "Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby" are also commonly used.
In fact, of the secular philosophies which are inaccurately described as religions, atheism is the least like a religion of all, since it does not dictate a specific worldview. Contrary to the assumptions of many creationists, atheism does not necessarily require an acceptance of the big bang theory or the evolution of the species; it predated both of these. All atheism requires is the lack of belief that any God does exist. Unlike religions, atheism does not require any specific activities or observances. Assessed against the criteria which make up most definitions of religion (belief in supernatural beings, worship, ritual, etc.), viewing atheism as a religion just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.Atheism & Religion: Atheism Myths by Austin Cline,About.com (archived from March 29, 2013).Is Atheism a Religion? Defining Atheism and Religion by Austin Cline,About.com (archived from March 29, 2013).
Do any atheists believe themselves to be practicing a religion? It seems unlikely. The only times they tend to take this position are in very rare cases over civil rights issues or to exploit a legal loophole. For example, in 2005, a federal court of appeals ruled in favor of a prison inmate's right to start a 'religious' study group for atheists. Ironically but unsurprisingly, when atheism is labeled as a religion, the loudest objections come from conservative Christians, in this case the American Family Association.Court rules atheism a religion (August 20, 2005) World Net Daily (archived from July 9, 2006).
This criticism may not be totally off in every case, as in Alain de Botton's call to build "atheist temples",Oh, Please. by PZ Myers (26 January 2012) Freethought Blogs. though in many ways, that example represents a form of architectural one-upmanship with religion, which heretofore had a near-monopoly on impressive and awe-inspiring buildings.Alain de Botton wants 'temples for atheists' by Duncan Geere (25 January 12) Wired UK (archived from March 9, 2012). 
While atheism is not a religion per se, one characteristic of the so-called "New Atheism" is the fact that its proponents sometimes evangelize or proselytize in a manner reminiscent of some religious believers. For these "New Atheists", it's not enough for them to not believe in God; they actively work to encourage religious believers to abandon their faith engage in critical thinking and skepticism in regard to their religious beliefs.
==Christian-originated secular religions==
Unitarian Universalism is probably the closest thing to an organized religion that deliberately makes room for secularism. Unitarian Universalists are free to (and in fact they must) create their own approach to religious belief and practice; for many of them, that means a religion with no concept of God/gods or the supernatural.
The Quakers have a non-negligible proportion of atheists.Welcome! nontheistfriends.org. A 2018 survey of British Quakers found that 14% were atheists and 43% felt unable to express a belief in God, attending meetings for a sense of fellowship rather than divine guidance.The Quakers are right. We don’t need God by Simon Jenkins (Fri 4 May 2018 02.00 EDT) The Guardian.
Many consider the Church of England to be asymptotically approaching being a secular religion, providing rituals like marriages and funerals and a place for the elderly to meet their friends, and with 2% of clergy reportedly atheist, though it still looks like fire-breathing fundamentalism compared to those two.Two per cent of Anglican priests don't believe in God, survey finds by Jonathan Wynne-Jones (27 October 2014 19:17) The Independent.
==Civil religion==
Those who decry "secular religions" often mean attributes often found in religions that secular ideologies, especially those aimed at improving the condition of humanity, sometimes acquire. Nationalism can serve this purpose. For example, there is little controversy about the messianic (in the larger sense) qualities of Marxism. The United States' foundation as a bastion of liberty and individual rights is also driven by a strong belief that these are good and essential to human happiness.
Both Marxist states and Western democracies have civil religions. The former Soviet Union staged public parades that featured images of Marxist culture heroes, and even shrines for pilgrimage such as Lenin's tomb. In East Germany, religious coming of age rituals like Roman Catholic confirmation (first communion) or Jewish Bar Mitzvahs were replaced by a state coming of age ritual, the Jugendfeier, which still persists in the reunified capitalist German state.An Interesting Coming of Age Ritual in Germany by Michael Schmitz (Updated February 28, 2017) Thought.co, (archived from October 14, 2017). The United States' civil religion involves many rituals around quasi-sacred objects like the flag, and is heavily inflected with Christian tropes: the nation is The New Jerusalem, The Shining City on a Hill. America also has mythology about its Founders and esteemed presidents, with memorials and landmarks visited by the patriotic/pious. Some Americans, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, refuse to recite The Pledge of Allegiance, claiming that it is idolatrous. Other nations also have secular rituals such as citizenship ceremonies.
==Evolution as a religion==
This is a favourite argument of creationists, who like to claim that the issue of evolution (or, as they call it, "evolutionism" or "Darwinism") versus creationism "is not science versus religion, but religion versus religion (the science of one religion versus the science of another religion)".The Lie: Evolution. Chapter 2: Evolution Is Religion by Ken Ham (July 1, 1987) Answers in Genesis (archived from March 19, 2015). An example comes from The Lie: Evolution by Ken Ham, but betrays a profound misunderstanding of both religion, which it defines only as a "cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" (quote-mined from the Merriam-Webster's Dictionaryreligion: noun Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.), and evolution. Ham's ridiculous argument seems to be that nothing can be scientifically concluded from fossils/evidence since we can study them only in the present and have no direct access to their role in the past, unlike "the irrefutable evidence of the Scriptures", which were clearly written in the time of Ken Ham.
From a more rational perspective, it is clear that the evolution of species is a scientific theory, predicated on scientific foundations and with scientific applications. Even if its acceptance is considered to be a matter of personal faith, it does not meet any of the defining criteria to be considered a religion.
In May 2015, Kenneth Smith filed a lawsuit against the Jefferson County, West Virginia Board of Education, the National Institute of Health, and Department of Education, claiming that evolution was a religion, and that it was therefore unconstitutional for his daughter's public school to teach it as fact. The suit did not mention any case law (e.g., McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education (1982), "it is clearly established in the case law, and perhaps also in common sense, that evolution is not a religion and that teaching evolution does not violate the Establishment Clause."), and is high in errors and low in facts. Kenneth Smith is apparently the author of the pungent, racist Christian screed The True Origin of Man (2013).Antievolution lawsuit filed in West Virginia National Center for Science Education (May 22nd, 2015)The True Origin of Man by Kenneth Smith (2013) iUniverse. ISBN 1475989660.
Philosophies drawn from "evolutionism" vary from social Darwinism to modern humanism. Some have more of a resemblance to religion, even if not meeting the full definition, but these are not part of the theory itself. Types of "evolutionism" that mimic religion often include notions that are decidedly anti-evolutionary or non-Darwinian. The notion of evolution as "progress", for example, heavily influenced thinkers such as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Herbert Spencer.Is Evolution a Secular Religion? by Michael Ruse (7 Mar 200) Science 299(5612):1523-1524. doi:10.1126/science.1082968.Evolution as a Religion by Mary Midgley (2002) Routledge. 2nd edition. ISBN 0415278333. Eugenics has often been characterized as a quasi-religious movement based on pseudo-evolutionary ideas. In fact, Charles Davenport, the grandaddy of eugenics in the US, produced a pamphlet titled "Eugenics as a Religion"Eugenics as a Religion by Charles Davenport, via American Philosophical Society Library. that laid out a eugenic "creed". The movement became religious in the more literal sense as some Christian churches supported eugenics and held sermon contests for its promotion.Topic: Religion Eugenics Archive In modern times, biologist E.O. Wilson had advocated using evolution as the basis of a quasi-religious mythos he called the "epic of evolution".
==Environmentalism and 'nature worship'==
Among the more persuasive variants of the 'secular religion' theory is an anthropological explanation proposed, for example, by Michael Crichton in his criticism of environmentalism:
Crichton controversially suggested that environmentalists look back to a fabled paradise state of Eden in which humans lived in unity with nature, before deconstructing this idyllic view of nature which, in fact, few if any environmentalists have ever professed. Crichton points to a few similarities with religion, such as environmentalists' fear of 'apocalyptic' doom if humankind doesn't redress its 'sins' of pollution and destruction, before telling us that DDT and second-hand smoke are harmless. His argument that sustainability is put forward as a form of religious salvation makes little sense, since sustainability is a system for managing resources, having more in common with economics than with religion.
To its most devoted adherents, environmentalism may present a coherent, almost religious, worldview that is espoused with zealotry, but its core beliefs rest on scientific observations and theories (such as global warming, espoused by the "warmist cult") rather than the supernatural deities that characterise a religion. Conservatives often counter this by attempting to associate mainstream environmentalism with pagan worship of the goddess Gaia or Mother Earth.See, for example, Conservapedia's "Environmentalist" article, "Environmentalism as Religion" by John M. Ostrowski, and "Environmentalism is a Religion (Photographic Proof)" (which featured as a main page "news" item at Conservapedia during September 2008). This conservative argument attempts to conflate the groups of hard greens and neopagans that subscribe to a sort of religious version of environmentalism with all environmentalism. These types often engage in magical thinking about the environment, such as subscribing to hard forms of the Gaia hypothesis. It may also include a form of "back to the land" romanticism or anarcho-primitivism such as that found in the works of John Zerzan. These brands of hard green environmentalism are more commonly found among hard-line Malthusians.
==Marxism as a religion==
Karl Marx's, along with his collaborator Friedrich Engels', writings have had a dramatic influence on world politics. Marxism as an outgrowth of their work has had a storied and turbulent development. Marxists come in all shades, from rational, to pseudoscientific, to the utterly fanatical, the latter of which being what this section describes. Despite seminal Marxist texts encouraging the use of the scientific method and attempting to formulate socialism as a scientific venture, many followers came to revere Marx as an almost prophetic figure and, when put in power, enforced this reverence with cruelty. 
In former communist countries, Marx was given a personality cult and was viewed as immune to criticism. Various later developments in Marxism (Stalinism, Maoism, Ho Chih Min Thought, etc.) grew to have their own fervently zealous circles surrounding them; Lenin's contributions to Marxist philosophy (Marxism-Leninism) are perhaps the most famous. Critics of communism were labeled as "counter-revolutionary criminals" and were jailed or even executed, which can be compared to the execution of critics of state religion on charges of blasphemy or apostasy. This took the form of the gulag system and Great Purge in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin and the Cultural Revolution in China under Mao Zedong. Richard Kapuściński, in his book Imperium about his travels in the Soviet Union, wrote that the idea of creating a religion without a god was considered.Imperium by Richard Kapuściński (1993) Czytelnik. ISBN 9029525134. However, during Stalin's rule, his cult of personality effectively led to a religion in which Stalin played the role of a god. In God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens speaks of his loss of belief in Marxism as closely analogous to loss of religious belief. 
While it displays similarities in such practices, Marxism lacks the supernatural beliefs (although the "force of history" is close), rituals, and other common aspects of religions. However, in the North Korean schism of Marxism, according to official ideology, there are miraculous beliefs related to the ruling family. For example, the birth of Kim Jong-il was accompanied by winter changing into spring, a star illuminating the sky, and a double rainbow spontaneously appearing. Marxism as a memeplex is analogous to the model of a religion, even including something of the transcendent (in its eventual goal of "class consciousness") and a mantra by which to dismiss or insult any doubter or unbeliever ("false consciousness"). The prediction of an eventual worldwide revolution that would result in an essentially utopian existence has also struck many as having religious overtones, bearing resemblance to a prophecy.Understanding Karl Marx: Hoisted from the Archives from Four Years Ago May Day Weblogging by Brad DeLong (May 01, 2013 at 03:45) Typepad.
Philosopher Bertrand Russell claimed that Marx has merely adopted the Jewish pattern of history and that, in order to understand Marx psychologically, one should use the following dictionary:
According to economist John Maynard Keynes, not only was Marx a prophet, but Das Kapital is basically worshipped as a religious text. As he summarizes: "How can I accept a doctrine which sets up as its bible, above and beyond criticism, an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world?"Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes by Richard Davenport-Hines (2015) Basic Books. ISBN 0465060676.
In June 2021, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping said that "all party comrades should take their faith in Marxism and the socialism with Chinese characteristics as their life's purposes".China's Xi Jinping Tells Party Members Marxism, Socialism Should Be 'Life's Purposes'
==Liberalism as a religion==
The most famous example of equating liberalism with religion is Ann Coulter's book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism,Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter (2006) Crown Forum. ISBN 1400054206. in which she argued that liberalism has become America's "official state religion", complete with its own creation stories, gods, martyrs, clergy, doctrines, and sacraments.Of course, Ann's definition of "liberalism" is in the modern American sense (i.e. conflating "liberalism" with left-wing, progressive ideology), and would almost certainly look strange (well, stranger) to Canadian, European, Latin/South American, Asian, African, or Australian audiences. The argument basically boils down to a familiar attack on the curricula and values taught in public schools, whose teachers Coulter regards as "clergy" baptising children into the cult of liberalism, and the alleged liberal bias of the media. It also involves lumping together many beliefs and stances, such as evolutionary theory and the pro-choice movement, which, although held by many liberals, are not part of a strict set of political or religious tenets. Furthermore, it takes a really warped stretch of the imagination to see abortions as religiously-motivated "virgin sacrifices", as Coulter apparently does.Is There a Godless Church of Liberalism or Atheism? Responding to Ann Coulter by Austin Cline (2007) About.com (archived from September 12, 2007).Is Godless Liberalism a Religion? by Austin Cline (2007) About.com (archived from September 17, 2007).
==The market as a religion==
Extreme forms of neoliberalism have been characterized pejoratively as "market-worship" or "market fundamentalism" (the term 'market fundamentalism' was coined by Jonathan Benthall in 1991"Inside information on 'the market'" by Jonathan Benthall (1991) Anthropology Today 7(4):1–2. and popularized by George SorosThe Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered by George Soros (1998) PublicAffairs. ISBN 1891620274.). Ernest Partridge identifies the sacred text as Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, which explicates the all-powerful force of "The Invisible Hand" (even though Smith himself would disagree with this interpretation). He further identifies conservative and libertarian think-tanks as "seminaries", pundits as the "priesthood", and the government as "the devil".The State Religion by Ernest Partridge (January 10, 2002) Democratic Underground. Mark Wexler has also used the concept of the invisible hand in connection with intelligent-design creationism."The other invisible hand emanates out of the notion of intelligent design (Carey, 1998; Dembski, 2002; Ruse 2004)." by Mark Wexler, Journal of Ideology.
The Market-God can have various co-gods or sub-gods,Persons of the Trinity, demigods, saints — take your pick of the available theological terminology… such as capitalism,Capitalism as Religion? A Study of Paul Tillich's Interpretation of Modernity by Francis Ching-Wah (2010) Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674021479. Business,[https://books.google.com/books?id=ACxuy_kCWY0C The Religion of Business and the Business of Religion by Alfred Bowen EVANS (1856) Edward Lumley. "That a life of business and a life of devotion to God must go together, with the Apostle's admonition before our minds, there can be no question … business and religion, the duties of this life and the preparation for the life to come, with a man of fervent spirit, are not two things, so much as two phases of the same thing."God Goes to Work: New Thought Paths to Prosperity and Profits by Tom Zender (2010) John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0470563656. "It has even been stated that people today do indeed worship at work instead of at church. … Business-as-religion never took hold of the United States and the other major world states in the way conspiracy theorists once feared it would; but those brief years are just one example of how spirituality and business have attempted, and failed at, amalgamation. Spirituality and business have a natural attraction. Like opposite sides of a magnet, they are eternally drawn to each other through their similar roots. They are flipsides of the most basic of all concepts: the transaction." and The Economy.Religion as Economy and Economy as Religion by Jonathan Friedman (1998) Rowman Altamira. 2nd edition. ISBN 0761989331. (Our economy — not someone else's.) Politicians of the populist sect may conceptually subdivide the Market-God and concentrate on its divine offspring, the Job-Market-God.
==Reason as a religion==
During the bleakest days of the French Revolution, the was established by the newly-created French Republic. The atheistic state religion was created as an attempt to substitute for the Roman Catholic Church, and would soon resort to the same methods used by its predecessor. The Cult of Reason transformed the Catholic altars into and even had its own liturgy, the The persecution of the Catholic Church by the adherents of the new cult unsurprisingly strengthened the opposition to the RevolutionThe History of the World by J. M. Roberts & Odd Arne Westad (2013) Oxford University Press. 6th edition. ISBN 0199936765. and, as a result, the Cult of Reason was replaced in 1794 by the which made the same blunders nonetheless. Both religions were finally abolished less than a decade later by Napoleon Bonaparte, who made Catholicism once more the de facto official religion in France.Documents upon Napoleon and the Reorganization of Religion. The Napoleon Series.
==Transhumanism as a religion==
Transhumanism has been characterized as a techno-utopian political ideology and a secular religion.Transhumanism – The Final Religion? by Dirk Bruere (July 16, 2015) Insitute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies (archived from July 21, 2015).Is Transhumanism a Religion? by Franklin Veaux, Think Beyond Us. The Singularity in particular has been derided as a "rapture of the nerds".The Rapture of the Nerds by Jessica Roy & Melbourne Beach (April 17, 2014 2:02 PM EDT) Time. Other quasi-religious concepts infest the philosophy, such as the Cartesian dualism implied by mind uploading and the quest for immortality in cryonics.
==Personality cults==
Personality cults that lack supernatural elements are often characterized as secular religions. The Juche movement in North Korea, also referred to as Kimilsungism, is regarded by some as a religion, with worshiping former dictator Kim Il Sung as a major component. 
There is similar sentiment regarding objectivism, which is reflected in the term "Randroid". 
Synanon, a drug treatment center with an authoritarian leader, even recognized its de facto status as a religion despite being a secular movement, and attempted in the mid-1970s to legally reorganize as the Church of Synanon.
==Atheistic religions==
Although atheism alone is not a religion, it is possible for an atheist to hold religious beliefs, and some religious sects or groups are largely nontheistic.The Big Religion Chart Religion Facts *(archived from February 16, 2011).
* Nontheist Friends are Quakers who do not believe in the personal God of the Bible.What is a Nontheist? by James Riemermann (September 20, 2006) nontheistfriends.org.
* Many Theravada Buddhists lack belief in any deities in the traditional Western sense (the Buddha was not a god, although stories of his life often have supernatural aspects). 
* Some sects of Hinduism accept atheism as a stance one can take, while the Charvaka, Mīmāṃsā, and Samkhya schools of Hinduism are explicitly atheistic.
* LaVeyan Satanists almost exclusively deny the existence of God, but it's a very tongue-in-cheek "religion".
* Unitarian Universalists have diverse views of theology, but atheists and other non-Christians outnumber Christians within the church.
* There are various types of nontheistic Judaism. Beliefs usually range from strict adherence to the laws of the Torah without a belief in the Jewish god to those who simply were born into or participate in elements of Jewish culture, making it more of an ethnic than religious identity. This usually goes by the name of "secular Judaism", "cultural Judaism", or "Jewish atheism".
* Dudeism is a non-theistic religion based on Taoism, using the film The Big Lebowski to spread its message of chilling out with weed, and going bowling.Dudeism.com
* Raëlism is a non-theistic religion that doesn't believe in [any Earth] Gods; however, it does feature aliens that adherents view as essentially divine (though believers claim that these aliens are not supernatural beings).
* Humanism is not a religion, but organisations such as Humanists UK provide officiants for weddings and funerals, taking roles traditionally filled by religious figures.
* Researchers of New Religious Movements note that some "therapy cults" (e.g., Erhard Seminars Training and derivatives) have religious elements.Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions by Elisabeth Arweck (2006) Taylor & Francis. ISBN 041527754X. "Schneider (1995: 189-190) lists organizations, such as Landmark Education, Verein zur Foerderung der Psychologischen Menschenkenntnis (VPM), Scientology/Dianetics, Ontologische Einweihungsschule (Hannes Scholl), EAP, and Die Bewegung (Silo) as examples of 'therapy cults'. These groups do not immediately suggest religion or Weltanschauung, but reveal ideological and religious elements on closer inspection.
* upholds the values associated with neopaganism (respect for nature and others, equality of sexes, celebration of festivities such as those of the while at the same time having a secular worldview: rejecting the supernatural elements, considering deities as personifications of different concepts, regarding magic to be just psychological, and supporting science.
==See also==
==External links==
*Climate change as a religion, and the more general use of “religion” as a term of insult, Andrew Gelman
*Economist Bob Nelson Examines Secular Religions, University of Maryland
==Notes==
==References==
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