Casey argues that secular religion arises whenever myth is evoked as a foundation for an idea. Myth does not describe a reality, rather:
Its function is to provide the sense of clarity and certainty necessary for action. In a culture riven by relativism and the adamant denial of any transcendent foundations, resorting to myth is effectively the only way of preserving concepts such as justice and human rights.
While secular values and movements proclaim that they are based on reason, careful inspection discovers myth at their foundation, because the postmodernism and relativism that provides their basic orientation denies that reason can provide any absolute foundation for their beliefs.
Advertisement
Thus in the absence of a metaphysical basis supported by reason, the idea of human rights is forced to base itself on the myth that such rights exist as an inalienable component of the individual.
While we may say that a certain individual possesses certain virtues obtained by discipline and practice, it flies in the face of reason to proclaim that each individual is endowed, we know not from where, by such a thing as a right. This is not to question the nobility of the individual and the necessity of justice but it is to look for a firmer foundation that the simple assertion, even if that assertion takes place in the councils of the UN.
Similarly, the ideology of endless progress is sustained by the myth of eternal improvement. Cast around and you will see that much of what has now been called the modern world actually rests on myths that have no rational basis. This includes all of the isms of the 20th century, those inheritors of Enlightenment rationalism that made that century so bloody.
The paradox of secularism is twofold, while it denies the religion of the past it harbors its own religious ideology and while it trumpets a reliance on reason, in reality it resorts to the kind of mythology that abounded in ancient Greece.
The phenomenon of political correctness is stark evidence that secular religion rules what we may say and think:
A range of ideologies in democratic societies are capable of taking on aspects of political religion, including radical variants of feminism, environmentalism and fee market economics. The main candidate for a democratic political religion in the present context incorporates some of these elements and is known in different places by names such as secularism, multiculturalism or radical liberalism. It centres on the sacralisation of ideas such human rights, tolerance and antidiscrimination, and works through a number of issues.
Advertisement
The security of living in a world of myth is that one is “secure from all refutation”. Try arguing with a feminist about the insistence that there should be gender balance in bodies of authority even though a great majority of women find themselves drawn towards the nurture of families.
Or try questioning the dogma that one sexual orientation is as good as another by raising the fact that same sex relationships are inherently sterile.
Try making an argument for the fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity, that although both are monotheistic it is not the same god that is worshipped.
Note: while every attempt to accurately represent Michael Casey’s article has been made, not all of the opinions expressed may be attributed to him.
Discuss in our Forums
See what other readers are saying about this article!
Click here to read & post comments.
177 posts so far.