Secular movement

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The secular movement refers to a social and political trend in the United States, [1] beginning in the early years of the 20th century, with the founding of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism in 1925 and the American Humanist Association in 1941, in which atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, freethinkers, and other nonreligious and nontheistic Americans have grown in both numbers and visibility. [2] There has been a sharp increase in the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated, from under 10 percent in the 1990s to 20 percent in 2013. [3] The trend is especially pronounced among young people, with about one in three Americans younger than 30 identifying as religiously unaffiliated, a figure that has nearly tripled since the 1990s. [3] [4]

Contents

The secular movement in the United States believes a secular government is essential to religious freedom. It is generally opposed to religious overreach, including the Christian right, and promotes liberal positions on social issues such as gay rights, reproductive rights, and separation of church and state. [5] [6]

Organizations

The secular movement has involved the rapid growth of national and local atheist, agnostic, freethinker, and humanist groups, with organizations such as American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Atheist Republic reporting rising membership and like-minded groups appearing in communities around the country. [7] This trend has been aided in part by the Internet, which has allowed atheists and other secularists to connect through blogs and social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup. [8] [9] This has enabled the formation of secular groups even in conservative, Bible Belt areas. [10] [11] [12] National secular groups that once had constituencies of a few thousand have used social media to attract followings in the hundreds of thousands. [13] [14] Secular student groups in colleges and high schools have also seen rapid growth. [15] The Secular Student Alliance, a national group formed in 2001, grew from 80 campus affiliates in 2007 to almost 400 in 2013. [16]

In 2014, reflecting an approach similar to the "coming out" strategy of the gay rights movement, a group called Openly Secular was formed to encourage nonreligious and nontheistic Americans to speak out. The group's mission "is to eliminate discrimination and increase acceptance by getting secular people—including atheists, freethinkers, agnostics, humanists, and nonreligious people—to be open about their beliefs." [17] In one video produced for the group, comedian and television personality Bill Maher urged atheists to be open about their religious skepticism, dismissing the Bible as a book "based on ancient myths". [18]

Advertising

The secular movement works to increase the visibility of nonbelievers, including through advertising campaigns. [19] [20] [21] With the number of local secular groups growing, a national group, the United Coalition of Reason, was formed in 2009 to use advertising as a means of promoting those groups. It operates by entering a media market and working with local atheist and humanist groups to form a local "Coalition of Reason", and then purchasing local advertising, usually billboards or transit ads, to promote that coalition. The group has executed this strategy in over 75 media markets in the United States. [22] Typical ads convey messages such as "Are You Good Without God? Millions Are" and "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." These ads often create local controversies, and have sometimes been vandalized. [23]

Political involvement

In 2002, the Secular Coalition for America was formed to lobby on behalf of secular Americans in Washington, D.C. In 2007, as a result of a campaign by the group, Rep. Pete Stark of California became the first open atheist in the United States Congress. [24] [25] In 2013, a political action committee was launched to support nonreligious political candidates and candidates sympathetic to atheist and humanist concerns. [26] The Secular Coalition for America claims that over two dozen members of Congress have privately reported being atheists, but refrain from openly identifying as such. [27]

Lawsuits

As America's secular demographic has grown and become more visible and active, a number of lawsuits have been brought to challenge references to God and religion in government. These cases have had limited success.

In 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the inclusion of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. That ruling was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow , 542 U.S. 1 (2004). The Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiff, Michael Newdow, not on the substantive legal issue but on a technicality, declaring that he lacked legal standing because he did not have custody of his daughter, on whose behalf he had brought the suit. Newdow subsequently filed a second case, and in 2010, the Ninth Circuit reversed its earlier decision and ruled that the "under God" wording did not violate the Establishment Clause. [28]

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled against the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation , 551 U.S. 587 (2007), which challenged the expenditure of tax money through the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The court ruled that taxpayers do not have legal standing to challenge expenditures by the executive branch. In 2011, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to the National Day of Prayer, again on standing grounds. [29] In 2013, a federal court rejected a challenge, brought by Newdow and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, to remove "In God We Trust" from American currency. [30]

In 2014, courts in Massachusetts and New Jersey rejected challenges to state laws requiring daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. The lawsuits, brought by the American Humanist Association, claimed that equal protection guarantees under the respective state constitutions prohibited daily recitation of the pledge because the "under God" wording discriminated against atheists. The courts ruled that, because participation in the exercise is voluntary, the laws do not violate equal protection. [31] [32]

In Town of Greece v. Galloway , the Supreme Court in 2014 rejected a challenge to the use of sectarian prayers by some local legislative bodies. [33] Though seen as a setback for church-state separation, the ruling also stated that municipalities cannot discriminate against minority faiths in allowing invocations, and atheists and humanists subsequently used it to assert their right to participate in the invocation process. Months after the Galloway ruling, an atheist gave the invocation at a regular meeting of the Town of Greece board. [34]

The secular movement has also been active in public discourse over the definition of religious freedom. Atheist and humanist groups opposed the Supreme Court's 2014 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. , which gave corporate employers the right to opt out of the birth control mandate of the Affordable Care Act on religious freedom grounds. [35]

Reason Rally

In March 2012, several national secular groups sponsored a Reason Rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with a lineup of speakers and performers that included Richard Dawkins, Tim Minchin, Bad Religion, and James Randi. The stated purpose of the rally was "to unify, energize, and embolden secular people nationwide". [36] Crowd estimates ranged from 8000 to 30,000. [37] [38] In 2015, organizers announced plans for a second Reason Rally, but did not set a date. [39] [40] The second quadrennial Reason Rally was held on June 4, 2016 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. [40]

Connection to New Atheism

New Atheist authors such as Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens helped give the secular movement momentum, though many American secularists disagree with the politics and style of the New Atheists. [41] [42] Dawkins has been involved in public disputes with atheist feminists who have criticized remarks he has made about sexual harassment. [43] The New Atheist authors have been highly critical of Islam, connecting terrorism to the religion of the perpetrators, and many secularists have denounced such views as Islamophobic. [44] Some within the secular movement, such as the American Humanist Association, have expressed "a strong distaste for efforts to propagate a crusade mentality against Islam". [45] However other prominent figures in the Secular movement disagree, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who believes that "political correctness is counterproductive" and that we must "acknowledge the issue of Islam." [46]

Activists & Prominent Figures

Related Research Articles

Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere. Secularism may encapsulate anti-clericalism, atheism, naturalism, non-sectarianism, neutrality on topics of religion, or antireligion. As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from the material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards "temporal" and material concerns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secular humanism</span> Life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism

Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system, or life stance that embraces human reason, logic, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision-making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religious humanism</span> Integration of humanist ethical philosophy

Religious humanism or ethical humanism is an integration of humanist philosophy with congregational rites and community activity that center on human needs, interests, and abilities. Religious humanists set themselves apart from secular humanists by characterizing the nontheistic humanist life stance as a non-supernatural "religion" and structuring their organization around a congregational model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Humanist Association</span> US secularist advocacy organization

The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.

Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, rationalism, secularism, and non-religious spirituality. These perspectives can vary, with individuals who identify as irreligious holding diverse beliefs about religion and its role in their lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Newdow</span> American attorney and emergency medicine physician

Michael Arthur Newdow is an American attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to have recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States declared unconstitutional because of its inclusion of the phrase "under God". He also filed and lost a lawsuit to stop the invocation prayer at President Bush's second inauguration and in 2009 he filed a lawsuit to prevent references to God and religion from being part of President Obama's inauguration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secular Coalition for America</span> American advocacy group

The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "protecting the equal rights of nonreligious Americans."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lori Lipman Brown</span> American politician

Lori Lipman Brown is an American politician and activist from the state of Nevada. She has served as a state senator, lobbyist, lawyer, educator, and social worker supporter. Additionally, her political views have been secularist and civil libertarian and describes herself as an atheist humanist Jew. She served as a Nevada State Senator from 1992 to 1994, advocating for repeals of consensual sex crimes. This led to her being named Civil Libertarian of the Year by the Nevadan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Additionally, she has organized numerous events for the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, the Secular Student Alliance, and the American Humanist Association. She was defeated for reelection to the State Senate by Kathy Augustine in 1994.

Discrimination against atheists, sometimes called atheophobia, atheistophobia, or anti-atheism, both at present and historically, includes persecution of and discrimination against people who are identified as atheists. Discrimination against atheists may be manifested by negative attitudes, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, or intolerance towards atheists and atheism or even the complete denial of atheists' existence. It is often expressed in distrust regardless of its manifestation. Perceived atheist prevalence seems to be correlated with reduction in prejudice. There is global prevalence of mistrust in moral perceptions of atheists found in even secular countries and among atheists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Epstein</span> Chaplain, Harvard university

Greg M. Epstein is an American Humanist chaplain at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is the president of the Harvard Chaplains Organization. He is an ordained Humanist rabbi, and has been influential in American humanism as a blogger, spokesperson, adviser and author of the New York Times bestsellerGood Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. Epstein was an expert on the first three seasons of the reality show "Married at First Sight."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Out Campaign</span> Public awareness initiative for freethought and atheism

The Out Campaign is a public awareness initiative for freethought and atheism in the US. It was initiated by Robin Elisabeth Cornwell, and is endorsed by Richard Dawkins, a prominent atheist. The campaign aims to create more openness about being an atheist by providing a means by which atheists can identify themselves to others by displaying the movement's scarlet letterA, a scarlet colored capital "A" in the Zapfino typeface, and an allusion to the scarlet letter A worn by Hester Prynne after being convicted of adultery in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. It encourages those who wish to be part of the campaign to come out and re-appropriate, in a humorous way, the social stigma that in some places persists against atheism, by branding themselves with a scarlet letter.

A. B. Shah (1920–1981) was the founder-president of the Indian Secular Society. The organization had its headquarters in Pune in Shah's lifetime but has now shifted to Mumbai. Until his death, A. B. Shah was the editor of The Secularist, a journal published by the Indian Secular Society (ISS). He also the edited the New Quest published by the Indian Association for Cultural Freedom. Shah took much interest in the problems of Indian Muslims. Shah's writings include What Ails our Muslims? and Religion and Society in India. Shah also edited Jayaprakash Narayan's Prison Diary, written by the prominent Indian leader in jail during the Emergency of 1975. Professor Shah was a mathematician and a scholar, who became interested in comparative religion and social reform, leading to founding Indian Secular Society.

The term New Atheism describes the positions of some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries. New Atheism advocates the view that superstition, religion, and irrationalism should not be tolerated. Instead, they advocate the antitheist view that the various forms of theism should be criticised, countered, examined, and challenged by rational argument, especially when they exert strong influence on the broader society, such as in government, education, and politics. Critics have characterised New Atheism as "secular fundamentalism" or "fundamentalist atheism". Major figures of New Atheism include Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett, collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen" of the movement.

The United Coalition of Reason, or UnitedCoR for short, is a national organization in the United States that works to raise the visibility of local groups in the community of reason. Nationally this is done by conducting campaigns that highlight the fact that nontheists live in every community across America. Locally this is done by organizing and nurturing local groups to communicate with each other and hold events and other outreach activities.

As of 2020, 20% of Singaporeans have no religious affiliation. The rate of irreligion is different among ethnic groups of Singapore: about 26% of Chinese residents have no religion, compared to just 0.4% of Malay residents and 2.2% of Indian residents. Age is also an important factor, as around 24% of people aged 15 to 24 indicated they had no religious connection, compared to 15% of residents aged 55 and over in the last census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Niose</span>

David Niose is an attorney, author, and activist who has served as president of the American Humanist Association and the Secular Coalition for America. In these positions he has pursued legal and advocacy efforts on behalf of secularism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reason Rally</span> Public gathering

The first Reason Rally was a public gathering for secularism and religious skepticism held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2012. The rally was sponsored by major atheistic and secular organizations of the United States and was regarded as a "Woodstock for atheists and skeptics". A second Reason Rally was held June 4, 2016 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Congressional Freethought Caucus is a membership organization in the United States House of Representatives established to promote policy solutions based on reason and science, and to defend the secular character of government. Representatives Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin have co-chaired the caucus since it formed in April 2018.

References

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  2. ↑ "Secular Movement". The Association of Religious Data Archives.
  3. 1 2 ""Nones" on the Rise". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 9 October 2012.
  4. ↑ "Trends in the Religious Unaffiliated, the "Nones," by Age". Black, White and Gray. 7 March 2013.
  5. ↑ Paul Bedard (9 October 2012). "Majority of atheists are liberal". Washington Examiner.
  6. ↑ "Social and Political Views of the Unaffiliated". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 9 October 2012.
  7. ↑ Goodstein, Laurie (27 April 2009). "More Atheists Shout It from the Rooftops". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ "Find your people - Meetup". meetup.com.
  9. ↑ "Friendly Atheist".
  10. ↑ "Freethought Society of the Midlands (FSM)". Meetup.
  11. ↑ "Alabama Atheists and Agnostics". Facebook.
  12. ↑ "Mississippi Gulf Coast Atheist and Freethinking Association". Meetup.
  13. ↑ "American Humanist Association". Facebook.
  14. ↑ "Freedom From Religion Foundation". Facebook.
  15. ↑ "This fall, get ready for more atheist clubs at high schools". jewishworldreview.com.
  16. ↑ "Non-believers taking college campuses by storm". salon.com. 16 February 2013.
  17. ↑ "Openly Secular". openlysecular.org.
  18. ↑ "Bill Maher Urges Atheists to Speak Up; Knocks the Bible as Book Based on 'Ancient Myths' in New Ad for Openly Secular". Christian Post. 20 January 2015.
  19. ↑ "Atheist Christmas billboard ads target America's Bible Belt - Christian News on Christian Today". christiantoday.com. 2 December 2014.
  20. ↑ "First 'atheist ad' on 'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report' features Ron Reagan". ffrf.org. 20 May 2014.
  21. ↑ "Humanists Launch Largest National Advertising Campaign Critical of Religious Scripture". American Humanist Association. 9 November 2010.
  22. ↑ "Home". unitedcor.org. Archived from the original on 2015-02-24.
  23. ↑ "Illinois atheist group's". Illinois Review.
  24. ↑ "Stark's atheist views break political taboo". SFGate. 14 March 2007.
  25. ↑ "Rep. Pete Stark (D-Cal.): first openly nontheistic member of Congress". secular.org. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  26. ↑ "Atheists Start PAC To Elect Nonreligious Candidates". NPR.org. 18 September 2013.
  27. ↑ "Group Claims 28 Atheists in Congress; 27 Closeted". Christian Post. 5 October 2011.
  28. ↑ http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/03/11/05-17257.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  29. ↑ "National Day Of Prayer Lawsuit Thrown Out By Federal Appeals Court". The Huffington Post.
  30. ↑ "Lawsuit to remove 'In God We Trust' from money gets dismissed - KSL.com". ksl.com.
  31. ↑ "'Under God' in Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional, says Massachusetts's highest court". The Washington Post .
  32. ↑ "N.J. Court Rejects Challenge to Pledge of Allegiance in Schools". Education Week - The School Law Blog. 9 February 2015.
  33. ↑ "Town of Greece v. Galloway". SCOTUSblog.
  34. ↑ Meaghan M. McDermott, Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle (16 July 2014). "Atheist gives invocation, first since high court decision". USA TODAY.
  35. ↑ "American Atheists - Atheists Decry Court's Grant of Religious Rights to Corporations in Hobby Lobby". American Atheists. 30 June 2014.
  36. ↑ "About". reasonrally.org. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02.
  37. ↑ Emma Green (24 November 2014). "The Origins of Aggressive Atheism". The Atlantic.
  38. ↑ "iTunes - Movies - The Unbelievers". iTunes. 13 December 2013.
  39. ↑ "Will Atheists March on Washington in 2016? Planning for the Second Reason Rally Has Begun". Friendly Atheist.
  40. 1 2 "Reason Rally". reasonrally.org.
  41. ↑ "Richard Dawkins has lost: meet the new atheists". The Spectator.
  42. ↑ "Christopher Hitchens' lies do atheism no favors". salon.com. 23 June 2013.
  43. ↑ Caitlin Dickson. "Richard Dawkins Gets into a Comments War with Feminists". The Wire. Archived from the original on 2016-07-31. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  44. ↑ "Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens: New Atheists flirt with Islamophobia". salon.com. 30 March 2013.
  45. ↑ "A Humanist Approach to Islam". American Humanist Association. 25 November 2014.
  46. ↑ "Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Tackle Islam or Face Civil War". Politico. 6 June 2017.
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