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If you are interested in this topic, I really cannot recommend reading A Secular Age by the philosopher Charles Taylor enough. It’s a huge book but the basic t
by keiferski 5y ago
If you are interested in this topic, I really cannot recommend reading A Secular Age by the philosopher Charles Taylor enough.
It’s a huge book but the basic takeaway is this: the modern secular world is a thing that was created over the course of many centuries and cultural developments. It is not merely the subtraction of so-called primitive beliefs. The “subtraction thesis” is the predominant model of how most people (and until recently, religious scholars) interpreted the secularizarion process.
This means that the same basic historical and psychological forces are at play, but they’ve just been morphed and combined in different ways. What is truly new about the modern secular world is its immanence, which basically just means it is not concerned with a “world beyond” this one, and its “cross pressures”, or the state of being aware of other viable alternatives to one’s belief system.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age
- tonymet 5y agoI'm concerned of both aspects. For one, thinking that secular belief is essential or natural – as if it's defined only by the material world and observations on it. Secular belief also assumes its universal (why wouldn't it be since we all live on the same earth). This leads to totalitarianism (with a small t)
- slim 5y agoIt is not concerned about the world beyond, but is concerned about the future. That's why it has beliefs too