SPOŁECZNE I FILOZOFICZNE IMPLIKACJE SEKULARYZMU Z PERSPEKTYWY AMERYKAŃSKIEJ
THE SOCIAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SECULARISM FROM AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: Secularism and religion should be studied, written about, and taught critically.In a world divided into a growing number of religious factions, secularism has beensupposed by many to be an answer to the fact of religious plurality. The logic ofsecularism is that by conducting our affairs without reference to God we can avoidreligious division and deal with each other on a common basis. In the Americancontext, it is often suggested that secularism is not only conceptually wise, but ismandated by our Constitution. Advocates of secularism also advance the idea thatsecularism is rationally superior to religious alternatives in the sense that it hewsmore closely to the path of science and empirical rationality. It is the contention ofthis article that all of the above notions about secularism are misguided and thatat least some religious societies, particularly Christian ones, are capable of success-fully accounting for pluralism without oppressive hegemony, and, in fact, have anincentive to do so. The analysis of secularism centers specifically on how it evolvedin the West, to what degree the framers of the American Constitution set out eithera secular or Christian America (or avoided the question entirely), whether secular-ism can successfully claim to be a neutral method of running a society, and whethersecularism really deserves a reputation as a running mate of scientific rationality.

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