Religion and Secularism

Religion and Secularism

Introduction

The modern world has developed an extensive debate on the relationship between religious institutions, the state, the civil power in general; debate that has not neglected the role of religion and its institutions in social life. In general it is said that modernity has been developed taking his secularism, according to which in the West, it worked to ensure that religious organizations were separate from political power and religion to turn into a private matter. There were also extreme positions, which forecasted that following the process of secularization and social progress, religion would disappear. Some have argued that, as a result of secularization, religious freedom, or rather the freedom of religion as a human right, it would have full expression, without impositions, intolerance, prejudice, and favoritism to certain confessions (OUP, n.d.). However, today there are still religious discrimination, some obvious, others subtle. In several countries a certain religious institution is part of fact, not of law, political power.

Discussion

Secular Morality

There are few nations that comply with a legal right not to be a believer, to have a secular morality and to be atheists, and indeed stimulate prejudices against these attitudes, because they consider them evidence of the lack of principles, ethical values ??and even disloyal to their country. On the other hand, experience has shown that the evolution of religion and its relationship with other social phenomena does not match what is expected, to the point that we can record a tendency to recover it, which manifests itself not a desire to return the role that religion had in the past, but the will to attribute greater importance in social life, thus strengthening the traditional church hopes hegemonic sectors. In the current situation, which is dominated by a uni-polar power and which shows a strong aggression exerted by the international centers of power, you're trying to manipulate the religious dimension into an instrument of political opposition to the schemes and systems against these hegemonic interests, the latter seek to impose neoliberal formulas and globalizing economy, politics and even religion. It should be noted that, from the theoretical point of view, the concept of "secular" has been widely discussed in the philosophical literature, law, sociology, and especially in political science, it has been debated for a long time on its content and on its extension. Although this concept has been stated before rationalism, has been further strengthened by the latter (Levey, et. al., 2009). Today it is still valid especially because of the contradiction between the processes of secularization of the modern world and the crisis of rationality; rationality is the basis of this contradiction. 

Irrational Differences

This crisis manifests itself in the development of irrational differences between rich and poor countries in the attack environment and the abandonment of large masses of poor, excluded from consumption because of neoliberal policies. This crisis derive significant increase in the religious world, the search for alternatives in utopias and religion, but it has also produced religious fundamentalism and the above-mentioned violations of freedom of ...