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<div id="contentSub"></div> <div id="contentSub2"></div> <div id="jump-to-nav"></div> <a class="mw-jump-link" href="#mw-head">Jump to navigation</a> <a class="mw-jump-link" href="#searchInput">Jump to search</a> <div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><div class="mw-parser-output"><div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:167px;"><a href="/wiki/File:George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg/165px-George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg" decoding="async" width="165" height="232" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg/248px-George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg/330px-George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg 2x" data-file-width="2848" data-file-height="3996" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:George_Washington_Greenough_statue.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Praise <a href="/wiki/George_Washington" title="George Washington">Father Washington</a>!</div></div></div> <table class="infobox" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #fa0000; width:175px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center; color:White; background-color:#fa0000"><b>Going One God Further</b><br /><a href="/wiki/Atheism" title="Atheism"><font size="4" color="White"><b>Atheism</b></font></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#ffe5e5;" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Category:Atheism" title="Category:Atheism"><img alt="Icon atheism.svg" src="/w/images/thumb/b/b0/Icon_atheism.svg/100px-Icon_atheism.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" srcset="/w/images/thumb/b/b0/Icon_atheism.svg/150px-Icon_atheism.svg.png 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/b/b0/Icon_atheism.svg/200px-Icon_atheism.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="200" data-file-height="200" /></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#fa0000; text-align:center;"><b>Key Concepts</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#ffe5e5;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Atheism" title="Atheism">Atheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Agnosticism" title="Agnosticism">Agnosticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antitheism" title="Antitheism">Antitheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/FAQ_for_the_Newly_Deconverted" title="FAQ for the Newly Deconverted">FAQ for the Newly Deconverted</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#fa0000; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Category:Atheism" title="Category:Atheism"><font color="white">Articles to not believe in</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#ffe5e5;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Protestant_vs._Catholic_atheism" title="Protestant vs. Catholic atheism">Protestant vs. Catholic atheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Root_of_All_Evil%3F" title="Root of All Evil?">Root of All Evil?</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_gods_that_theists_don%27t_believe_in" title="List of gods that theists don't believe in">List of gods that theists don't believe in</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Religulous" title="Religulous">Religulous</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#fa0000; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Category:Atheists" title="Category:Atheists"><font color="white">Notable heathens</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#ffe5e5;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Douglas_Adams" title="Douglas Adams">Douglas Adams</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Brian_Cox" title="Brian Cox">Brian Cox</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kyle_Kulinski" title="Kyle Kulinski">Kyle Kulinski</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Adam_Kokesh" title="Adam Kokesh">Adam Kokesh</a></li></ul> <div class="vte plainlinks" style="font-size:smaller; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Template:Atheism" title="Template:Atheism">v</a> - <a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Atheism" title="Template talk:Atheism">t</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Atheism&action=edit">e</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Secular religion</b> is a term referring to <a href="/wiki/Ideology" title="Ideology">ideologies</a> or <a href="/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy">philosophies</a> that have no <a href="/wiki/Spirituality" title="Spirituality">spiritual</a>, <a href="/wiki/Supernatural" title="Supernatural">supernatural</a>, or <a href="/wiki/Religious" class="mw-redirect" title="Religious">religious</a> components, but which the speaker claims mimic the forms of religious institutions. </p><p>Various elements of religion can be replaced or mimicked. This includes the philosophical basis of religion as an attempt to provide meaning and <a href="/wiki/Metaphysical" class="mw-redirect" title="Metaphysical">metaphysical</a> underpinning, including providing impetus for <a href="/wiki/Moral" class="mw-redirect" title="Moral">moral</a> behavior and good deeds. But it can also involve mimicking the ceremonial and social aspect of religion, replacing gatherings for worship with other regular gatherings and communal experiences, and replacing religious rituals for life events such as marking <a href="/wiki/Birth" class="mw-redirect" title="Birth">births</a>, <a href="/wiki/Marriage" title="Marriage">marriages</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Death" title="Death">deaths</a>. </p><p>Nevertheless, the very concept of "secular religion" may be of doubtful validity, as it may be a simple <a href="/wiki/Oxymoron" title="Oxymoron">oxymoron</a>. </p> <div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div> <ul> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#Atheism_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Atheism as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#Christian-originated_secular_religions"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Christian-originated secular religions</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#Civil_religion"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Civil religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="#Evolution_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Evolution as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="#Environmentalism_and_.27nature_worship.27"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Environmentalism and 'nature worship'</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="#Marxism_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">Marxism as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="#Liberalism_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Liberalism as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="#The_market_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">The market as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9"><a href="#Reason_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">Reason as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10"><a href="#Transhumanism_as_a_religion"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">Transhumanism as a religion</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11"><a href="#Personality_cults"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">Personality cults</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12"><a href="#Atheistic_religions"><span class="tocnumber">12</span> <span class="toctext">Atheistic religions</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">13</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14"><a href="#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">14</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15"><a href="#Notes"><span class="tocnumber">15</span> <span class="toctext">Notes</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-16"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">16</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Atheism_as_a_religion">Atheism as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Atheism as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div role="note" class="hatnote">See the main article on this topic: <a href="/wiki/Atheism_as_a_religion" title="Atheism as a religion">Atheism as a religion</a></div> <p>This is one of the most commonly encountered examples of this trend. Critics of <a href="/wiki/Atheism" title="Atheism">atheism</a>, usually <a href="/wiki/Conservative" class="mw-redirect" title="Conservative">conservative</a>/<a href="/wiki/Fundamentalist" class="mw-redirect" title="Fundamentalist">fundamentalist</a> <a href="/wiki/Christians" class="mw-redirect" title="Christians">Christians</a>, assert that atheism itself is a religious belief. It is somewhat bizarre that people who cherish so strongly the sanctity of their own beliefs should characterize something so alien to them as being a religion. One possibility is that they are so entrenched in their own religious mindset that they are unable to comprehend the idea of a non-religious belief. More likely, though, is that they believe they are pointing out some deep <a href="/wiki/Hypocrisy" title="Hypocrisy">hypocrisy</a>, in that atheists claim to reject religion while actually practicing it. (Then again, that could just loop back around to religious people finding non-religious <a href="/wiki/Worldview" title="Worldview">worldviews</a> inconceivable.) </p><p>For atheism to be considered a religion involves stretching the definition of religion to its loosest possible meaning — something like "a belief based on <a href="/wiki/Faith" title="Faith">faith</a>", in this case faith that there is no <a href="/wiki/God" title="God">God</a>. Even this is tenuous, for while some atheists have a strong conviction (arguably equivalent to religious faith) that God does not exist, an atheistic (or at least <a href="/wiki/Agnosticism" title="Agnosticism">agnostic</a>) viewpoint can also be achieved from taking the <a href="/wiki/Scientific" class="mw-redirect" title="Scientific">scientific</a> (and therefore irreligious) attitude of only accepting as real things that are observable based on <a href="/wiki/Evidence" title="Evidence">evidence</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[note 1]</a></sup> The argument can be further refuted by analogy. If disbelief in God is a religion, then so is disbelief in the <a href="/wiki/Tooth_Fairy" title="Tooth Fairy">Tooth Fairy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Santa_Claus" title="Santa Claus">Santa Claus</a>, <a href="/wiki/Unicorn" title="Unicorn">unicorns</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Leprechaun" title="Leprechaun">leprechauns</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[1]</a></sup> The comparisons "Atheism is a religion like baldness is a hair color" and "Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby" are also commonly used. </p><p>In fact, of the <a href="/wiki/Secular" title="Secular">secular</a> philosophies which are inaccurately described as religions, atheism is the least like a religion of all, since it does not dictate a specific worldview. Contrary to the assumptions of many <a href="/wiki/Creationists" class="mw-redirect" title="Creationists">creationists</a>, atheism does not necessarily require an acceptance of the <a href="/wiki/Big_bang" class="mw-redirect" title="Big bang">big bang</a> theory or the <a href="/wiki/Evolution" title="Evolution">evolution</a> of the species; it predated both of these. All atheism requires is the lack of belief that any God does exist. Unlike religions, atheism does not require any specific activities or observances. Assessed against the criteria which make up most definitions of religion (belief in supernatural beings, worship, ritual, etc.), viewing atheism as a religion just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">[3]</a></sup> </p><p>Do any atheists believe themselves to be practicing a religion? It seems unlikely. The only times they tend to take this position are in very rare cases over <a href="/wiki/Civil_rights" title="Civil rights">civil rights</a> issues or to exploit a legal loophole. For example, in 2005, a federal court of appeals ruled in favor of a prison inmate's right to start a 'religious' study group for atheists. <a href="/wiki/Ironically" class="mw-redirect" title="Ironically">Ironically</a> but unsurprisingly, when atheism is labeled as a religion, the loudest objections come from conservative Christians, in this case the <a href="/wiki/American_Family_Association" title="American Family Association">American Family Association</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5">[4]</a></sup> </p><p>This criticism may not be totally off in every case, as in Alain de Botton's call to build "atheist temples",<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6">[5]</a></sup> though in many ways, that example represents a form of architectural one-upmanship with religion, which heretofore had a near-monopoly on impressive and awe-inspiring buildings.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7">[6]</a></sup> </p><p>While atheism is not a religion per se, one characteristic of the so-called "<a href="/wiki/New_Atheism" title="New Atheism">New Atheism</a>" is the fact that its proponents sometimes <a href="/wiki/Evangelism" title="Evangelism">evangelize</a> or proselytize in a manner reminiscent of some religious believers. For these "New Atheists", it's not enough for <i>them</i> to not believe in God; they actively work to encourage religious believers to <s><a href="/wiki/Apostasy" title="Apostasy">abandon their faith</a></s> engage in <a href="/wiki/Critical_thinking" title="Critical thinking">critical thinking</a> and <a href="/wiki/Skepticism" title="Skepticism">skepticism</a> in regard to their religious beliefs. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Christian-originated_secular_religions">Christian-originated secular religions</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Christian-originated secular religions">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p><a href="/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism" title="Unitarian Universalism">Unitarian Universalism</a> is probably the closest thing to an organized religion that deliberately makes room for secularism. Unitarian Universalists are free to (and in fact they must) create their own approach to religious belief and practice; for many of them, that means a religion with no concept of God/gods or the supernatural. </p><p>The <a href="/wiki/Quaker" class="mw-redirect" title="Quaker">Quakers</a> have a non-negligible proportion of atheists.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9">[8]</a></sup> A 2018 survey of British Quakers found that 14% were atheists and 43% felt unable to express a belief in God, attending meetings for a sense of fellowship rather than divine guidance.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10">[9]</a></sup> </p><p>Many consider the <a href="/wiki/Church_of_England" title="Church of England">Church of England</a> to be asymptotically approaching being a secular religion, providing rituals like marriages and funerals and a place for the elderly to meet their friends, and with 2% of clergy reportedly atheist, though it still looks like fire-breathing fundamentalism compared to those two.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11">[10]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Civil_religion">Civil religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Civil religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:252px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg/250px-Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg" decoding="async" width="250" height="167" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg/375px-Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg/500px-Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg 2x" data-file-width="5616" data-file-height="3744" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Flickr_-_The_U.S._Army_-_Young_patriot.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>A boy celebrates Memorial Day in Washington.</div></div></div> <div role="note" class="hatnote">See the main article on this topic: <a href="/wiki/Civil_religion" title="Civil religion">Civil religion</a></div> <p>Those who decry "secular religions" often mean attributes often found in religions that secular ideologies, especially those aimed at improving the condition of humanity, sometimes acquire. <a href="/wiki/Nationalism" title="Nationalism">Nationalism</a> can serve this purpose. For example, there is little controversy about the messianic (in the larger sense) qualities of <a href="/wiki/Marxism" class="mw-redirect" title="Marxism">Marxism</a>. The <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>' foundation as a bastion of <a href="/wiki/Liberty" title="Liberty">liberty</a> and individual rights is also driven by a strong belief that these are good and essential to human happiness. </p><p>Both Marxist states and Western <a href="/wiki/Democracies" class="mw-redirect" title="Democracies">democracies</a> have civil religions. The former <a href="/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a> staged public parades that featured <a href="/wiki/Idolatry" title="Idolatry">images</a> of Marxist culture heroes, and even shrines for <a href="/wiki/Pilgrimage" title="Pilgrimage">pilgrimage</a> such as <a href="/wiki/Lenin" class="mw-redirect" title="Lenin">Lenin</a>'s tomb. In <a href="/wiki/East_Germany" title="East Germany">East Germany</a>, religious coming of age rituals like <a href="/wiki/Roman_Catholic" class="mw-redirect" title="Roman Catholic">Roman Catholic</a> confirmation (first <a href="/wiki/Communion" class="mw-redirect" title="Communion">communion</a>) or <a href="/wiki/Judaism" title="Judaism">Jewish</a> Bar Mitzvahs were replaced by a state coming of age ritual, the <i>Jugendfeier</i>, which still persists in the reunified <a href="/wiki/Capitalist" class="mw-redirect" title="Capitalist">capitalist</a> <a href="/wiki/Germany" title="Germany">German state</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12">[11]</a></sup> The United States' civil religion involves many rituals around quasi-sacred objects like the <a href="/wiki/Flag_Police" title="Flag Police">flag</a>, and is heavily inflected with Christian tropes: the nation is The New Jerusalem, The Shining City on a Hill. America also has <a href="/wiki/Mythology" title="Mythology">mythology</a> about its <a href="/wiki/Founding_Fathers" title="Founding Fathers">Founders</a><sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14">[note 2]</a></sup> and esteemed <a href="/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States">presidents</a>, with memorials and landmarks visited by the patriotic/pious. Some Americans, such as <a href="/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses" title="Jehovah's Witnesses">Jehovah's Witnesses</a>, refuse to recite <a href="/wiki/The_Pledge_of_Allegiance" title="The Pledge of Allegiance">The Pledge of Allegiance</a>, claiming that it is <a href="/wiki/Idolatry" title="Idolatry">idolatrous</a>. Other nations also have secular rituals such as citizenship ceremonies. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Evolution_as_a_religion">Evolution as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Evolution as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>This is a favourite argument of <a href="/wiki/Creationists" class="mw-redirect" title="Creationists">creationists</a>, who like to claim that the issue of <a href="/wiki/Evolution" title="Evolution">evolution</a> (or, <a href="/wiki/Snarl_word" class="mw-redirect" title="Snarl word">as they call it</a>, "<a href="/wiki/Evolutionism" title="Evolutionism">evolutionism</a>" or "<a href="/wiki/Darwinism" title="Darwinism">Darwinism</a>") versus creationism "is not science versus religion, but religion versus religion (the science of one religion versus the science of another religion)".<sup id="cite_ref-ham_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ham-15">[13]</a></sup> An example comes from <i>The Lie: Evolution</i> by <a href="/wiki/Ken_Ham" title="Ken Ham">Ken Ham</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-ham_15-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ham-15">[13]</a></sup> but betrays a profound misunderstanding of both religion, which it defines only as a "cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith"<sup id="cite_ref-ham_15-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-ham-15">[13]</a></sup> (<a href="/wiki/Quote_mining" title="Quote mining">quote-mined</a> from the <i>Merriam-Webster's Dictionary</i><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16">[14]</a></sup>), and evolution. Ham's ridiculous argument seems to be that nothing can be scientifically concluded from fossils/evidence since <a href="/wiki/How_do_you_know%3F_Were_you_there%3F" title="How do you know? Were you there?">we can study them only in the present and have no direct access to their role in the past</a>, unlike "the <a href="/wiki/Biblical_contradictions" title="Biblical contradictions">irrefutable evidence of the Scriptures</a>", which were clearly written in the time of Ken Ham. </p><p>From a more rational perspective, it is clear that the evolution of species is a <a href="/wiki/Scientific_theory" title="Scientific theory">scientific theory</a>, predicated on scientific foundations and with scientific applications. Even if its acceptance is considered to be a matter of personal faith, it does not meet any of the defining criteria to be considered a religion. </p><p>In May 2015, Kenneth Smith filed a lawsuit against the Jefferson County, <a href="/wiki/West_Virginia" class="mw-redirect" title="West Virginia">West Virginia</a> Board of Education, the National Institute of Health, and Department of Education, claiming that evolution was a religion, and that it was therefore unconstitutional for his daughter's <a href="/wiki/Public_school" title="Public school">public school</a> to teach it as fact. The suit did not mention any case law (e.g., <i><a href="/wiki/McLean_v._Arkansas_Board_of_Education" title="McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education">McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education</a></i> (1982), "it is clearly established in the case law, and perhaps also in <a href="/wiki/Common_sense" title="Common sense">common sense</a>, that evolution is not a religion and that teaching evolution does not violate the <a href="/wiki/Establishment_Clause" title="Establishment Clause">Establishment Clause</a>."), and is high in errors and low in facts. Kenneth Smith is apparently the author of the pungent, <a href="/wiki/Racist" class="mw-redirect" title="Racist">racist</a> Christian screed <i>The True Origin of Man</i> (2013).<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17">[15]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18">[16]</a></sup> </p><p>Philosophies drawn from "evolutionism" vary from <a href="/wiki/Social_Darwinism" title="Social Darwinism">social Darwinism</a> to modern <a href="/wiki/Humanism" title="Humanism">humanism</a>. Some have more of a resemblance to religion, even if not meeting the full definition, but these are not part of the theory itself. Types of "evolutionism" that mimic religion often include notions that are decidedly anti-evolutionary or non-Darwinian. The notion of evolution as "progress", for example, heavily influenced thinkers such as <a href="/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck" title="Jean-Baptiste Lamarck">Jean-Baptiste Lamarck</a> and <a href="/wiki/Herbert_Spencer" title="Herbert Spencer">Herbert Spencer</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20">[18]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Eugenics" title="Eugenics">Eugenics</a> has often been characterized as a quasi-religious movement based on pseudo-evolutionary ideas. In fact, Charles Davenport, the grandaddy of eugenics in the US, produced a pamphlet titled "Eugenics as a Religion"<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21">[19]</a></sup> that laid out a eugenic "creed". The movement became religious in the more literal sense as some Christian churches supported eugenics and held sermon contests for its promotion.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22">[20]</a></sup> In modern times, <a href="/wiki/Biologist" class="mw-redirect" title="Biologist">biologist</a> <a href="/wiki/E.O._Wilson" class="mw-redirect" title="E.O. Wilson">E.O. Wilson</a> (1929–2021) had advocated using evolution as the basis of a quasi-religious mythos he called the "epic of evolution".<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23">[21]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span id="Environmentalism_and_'nature_worship'"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Environmentalism_and_.27nature_worship.27">Environmentalism and 'nature worship'</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Environmentalism and 'nature worship'">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Among the more persuasive variants of the 'secular religion' theory is an <a href="/wiki/Anthropology" title="Anthropology">anthropological</a> explanation proposed, for example, by Michael Crichton in his criticism of environmentalism: </p> <blockquote class="letter" style="width:auto; background:#f8f8ff; border:1px solid #C9C9CF;"> <p>I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people — the best people, the most enlightened people — do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.<sup id="cite_ref-Crichton_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Crichton-24">[22]</a></sup> </p> </blockquote> <p>Crichton controversially suggested that <a href="/wiki/Environmentalism" title="Environmentalism">environmentalists</a> look back to a fabled paradise state of <a href="/wiki/Eden" class="mw-redirect" title="Eden">Eden</a> in which humans lived in unity with nature, before deconstructing this idyllic view of nature which, in fact, few if any environmentalists have ever professed. Crichton points to a few similarities with religion, such as environmentalists' fear of 'apocalyptic' doom if humankind doesn't redress its 'sins' of <a href="/wiki/Pollution" title="Pollution">pollution</a> and destruction, before telling us that <a href="/wiki/DDT" title="DDT">DDT</a> and <a href="/wiki/Second-hand_smoke" title="Second-hand smoke">second-hand smoke</a> are harmless. His argument that <a href="/wiki/Sustainability" title="Sustainability">sustainability</a> is put forward as a form of religious salvation makes little sense, since sustainability is a system for managing resources, having more in common with <a href="/wiki/Economics" title="Economics">economics</a> than with religion. </p><p>To its most <a href="/wiki/Hard_green" title="Hard green">devoted adherents</a>, environmentalism may present a coherent, almost religious, worldview that is espoused with zealotry, but its core beliefs rest on scientific observations and theories (such as <a href="/wiki/Global_warming" class="mw-redirect" title="Global warming">global warming</a>, espoused by the "<a href="/wiki/Warmist" class="mw-redirect" title="Warmist">warmist</a> cult") rather than the supernatural deities that characterise a religion. <a href="/wiki/Conservatives" class="mw-redirect" title="Conservatives">Conservatives</a> often counter this by attempting to associate mainstream environmentalism with <a href="/wiki/Pagan" class="mw-redirect" title="Pagan">pagan</a> worship of the goddess <a href="/wiki/Gaia" title="Gaia">Gaia</a> or Mother Earth.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25">[23]</a></sup> This conservative argument attempts to <a href="/wiki/Nutpicking" title="Nutpicking">conflate</a> the groups of <a href="/wiki/Hard_green" title="Hard green">hard greens</a> and <a href="/wiki/Neopagan" class="mw-redirect" title="Neopagan">neopagans</a> that subscribe to a sort of religious version of environmentalism with all environmentalism. These types often engage in <a href="/wiki/Magical_thinking" title="Magical thinking">magical thinking</a> about the environment, such as subscribing to hard forms of the <a href="/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis" title="Gaia hypothesis">Gaia hypothesis</a>. It may also include a form of "back to the land" <a href="/wiki/Romanticism" title="Romanticism">romanticism</a> or <a href="/wiki/Anarchism#Anarcho-primitivism" title="Anarchism">anarcho-primitivism</a> such as that found in the works of <a href="/wiki/John_Zerzan" title="John Zerzan">John Zerzan</a>. These brands of hard green environmentalism are more commonly found among hard-line <a href="/wiki/Cornucopian_vs._Malthusian_debate" title="Cornucopian vs. Malthusian debate">Malthusians</a>. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Marxism_as_a_religion">Marxism as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Marxism as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:277px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035,_Berlin,_XI._SED-Parteitag,_Rede_Honecker.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035%2C_Berlin%2C_XI._SED-Parteitag%2C_Rede_Honecker.jpg/275px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035%2C_Berlin%2C_XI._SED-Parteitag%2C_Rede_Honecker.jpg" decoding="async" width="275" height="195" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035%2C_Berlin%2C_XI._SED-Parteitag%2C_Rede_Honecker.jpg/413px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035%2C_Berlin%2C_XI._SED-Parteitag%2C_Rede_Honecker.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035%2C_Berlin%2C_XI._SED-Parteitag%2C_Rede_Honecker.jpg/550px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035%2C_Berlin%2C_XI._SED-Parteitag%2C_Rede_Honecker.jpg 2x" data-file-width="800" data-file-height="566" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0421-035,_Berlin,_XI._SED-Parteitag,_Rede_Honecker.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>East German Communist Party Congress with Erich Honecker on the pulpit.</div></div></div> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span><a href="/wiki/Communist_glossary#Primitive_communism" title="Communist glossary">Primitive communism</a> is Eden; the invention of private property is <a href="/wiki/The_Fall" class="mw-redirect" title="The Fall">the Fall</a>; the stages of society thereafter are the different dispensations of sacred history; <a href="/wiki/Marx" class="mw-redirect" title="Marx">Marx</a> is <a href="/wiki/Jesus" title="Jesus">Jesus</a>, the First International his <a href="/wiki/Apostle" title="Apostle">apostles</a> and disciples, the international Communist movement the Church, <a href="/wiki/Communist_glossary#Proletariat" title="Communist glossary">proletarian</a> <a href="/wiki/Revolution" title="Revolution">revolution</a> the <a href="/wiki/Second_Coming" title="Second Coming">Second Coming</a>, <a href="/wiki/Socialism" title="Socialism">socialism</a> the <a href="/wiki/Millennialism" title="Millennialism">Millennium</a>, and communism the New Jerusalem which descends from <a href="/wiki/Heaven" title="Heaven">heaven</a>…</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—John Michael Greer<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26">[24]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>In one important sense, Marxism is a religion. To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which implies a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—Joseph Schumpeter<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27">[25]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:5</sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><a href="/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a>'s, along with his collaborator <a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Engels" title="Friedrich Engels">Friedrich Engels</a>', writings have had a dramatic influence on world politics. Marxism as an outgrowth of their work has had a storied and turbulent development. Marxists come in all shades, from rational, to <a href="/wiki/Pseudoscientific" class="mw-redirect" title="Pseudoscientific">pseudoscientific</a>, to the utterly fanatical, the latter of which being what this section describes. Despite seminal Marxist texts encouraging the use of the <a href="/wiki/Scientific_method" title="Scientific method">scientific method</a><sup>[<a href="/wiki/Help:References" title="Help:References"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup> and attempting to formulate <a href="/wiki/Socialism" title="Socialism">socialism</a> as a scientific venture, many followers came to revere Marx as an almost prophetic figure and, when put in power, enforced this reverence with cruelty. </p><p>In former communist countries, Marx was given a <a href="/wiki/Personality_cult" title="Personality cult">personality cult</a> and was viewed as immune to criticism. Various later developments in Marxism (Stalinism, Maoism, Ho Chih Min Thought, etc.) grew to have their own fervently zealous circles surrounding them; <a href="/wiki/Lenin" class="mw-redirect" title="Lenin">Lenin</a>'s contributions to Marxist philosophy (Marxism-Leninism) are perhaps the most famous. Critics of communism were labeled as "counter-revolutionary criminals" and were jailed or even executed, which can be compared to the execution of critics of state religion on charges of <a href="/wiki/Blasphemy" title="Blasphemy">blasphemy</a> or <a href="/wiki/Apostasy" title="Apostasy">apostasy</a>. This took the form of the <a href="/wiki/Gulag" class="mw-redirect" title="Gulag">gulag</a> system and Great Purge in the Soviet Union under <a href="/wiki/Joseph_Stalin" title="Joseph Stalin">Joseph Stalin</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Cultural_Revolution" class="mw-redirect" title="Cultural Revolution">Cultural Revolution</a> in <a href="/wiki/China" title="China">China</a> under <a href="/wiki/Mao_Zedong" title="Mao Zedong">Mao Zedong</a>. Richard Kapuściński, in his book <i>Imperium</i> about his travels in the Soviet Union, wrote that the idea of creating a religion without a god was considered.<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28">[26]</a></sup> However, during Stalin's rule, his cult of personality effectively led to a religion in which Stalin played the role of a god. In <i>God is not Great</i>, <a href="/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens" title="Christopher Hitchens">Christopher Hitchens</a> speaks of his loss of belief in Marxism as closely analogous to loss of religious belief. </p><p>While it displays similarities in such practices, Marxism lacks the supernatural beliefs (although the "force of history" is close), rituals, and other common aspects of religions. However, in the <a href="/wiki/North_Korean" class="mw-redirect" title="North Korean">North Korean</a> <a href="/wiki/Schism" title="Schism">schism</a> of Marxism, according to official ideology, there are miraculous beliefs related to the ruling family. For example, the birth of <a href="/wiki/Kim_Jong-il" title="Kim Jong-il">Kim Jong-il</a> was accompanied by winter changing into spring, a star illuminating the sky, and a double <a href="/wiki/Rainbow" title="Rainbow">rainbow</a> spontaneously appearing. Marxism as a <a href="/wiki/Memeplex" class="mw-redirect" title="Memeplex">memeplex</a> is analogous to the model of a religion, even including something of the transcendent (in its eventual goal of "<a href="/wiki/Communist_glossary#Class_consciousness" title="Communist glossary">class consciousness</a>") and a mantra by which to dismiss or insult <a href="/wiki/Infidel" title="Infidel">any doubter or unbeliever</a> ("<a href="/wiki/False_consciousness" title="False consciousness">false consciousness</a>"). The prediction of an <a href="/wiki/Second_Coming" title="Second Coming">eventual worldwide revolution</a> that would result in an <a href="/wiki/Heaven" title="Heaven">essentially utopian existence</a> has also struck many as having religious overtones, bearing resemblance to a <a href="/wiki/Prophecy" title="Prophecy">prophecy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29">[27]</a></sup> </p><p>Philosopher <a href="/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a> claimed that Marx has merely adopted the <a href="/wiki/Jewish" class="mw-redirect" title="Jewish">Jewish</a> pattern of history and that, in order to understand Marx psychologically, one should use the following dictionary: </p> <blockquote class="letter" style="width:auto; background:#f8f8ff; border:1px solid #C9C9CF;"> <p>Yahweh: Dialectical Materialism </p><p>The Messiah: Marx </p><p>The Elect: The Proletariat </p><p>The Church: The Communist Party </p><p>The Second Coming: The Revolution </p><p>Hell: Punishment of the Capitalists </p><p>The Millennium: The Communist Commonwealth<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30">[28]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:363-364</sup> </p> </blockquote> <p><br /> </p><p>According to economist <a href="/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes" title="John Maynard Keynes">John Maynard Keynes</a>, not only was Marx a <a href="/wiki/Prophet" title="Prophet">prophet</a>, but <i><a href="/wiki/Das_Kapital" title="Das Kapital">Das Kapital</a></i> is basically worshipped as a religious text. As he summarizes: "How can I accept a doctrine which sets up as its bible, above and beyond criticism, an obsolete economic textbook which I know to be not only scientifically erroneous but without interest or application for the modern world?"<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31">[29]</a></sup> </p><p>In June 2021, Chinese dictator <a href="/wiki/Xi_Jinping" title="Xi Jinping">Xi Jinping</a> said that "all party comrades should take their faith in Marxism and the socialism with Chinese characteristics as their life's purposes".<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32">[30]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:149</sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Liberalism_as_a_religion">Liberalism as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Liberalism as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>The most famous example of equating liberalism with religion is <a href="/wiki/Ann_Coulter" title="Ann Coulter">Ann Coulter</a>'s book, <i><a href="/wiki/Godless:_The_Church_of_Liberalism" title="Godless: The Church of Liberalism">Godless: The Church of Liberalism</a></i>,<sup id="cite_ref-godless_33-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-godless-33">[31]</a></sup> in which she argued that liberalism has become America's "official state religion",<sup id="cite_ref-godless_33-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-godless-33">[31]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:2</sup> complete with its own <a href="/wiki/Creation_myths" title="Creation myths">creation stories</a>, gods, <a href="/wiki/Martyr" title="Martyr">martyrs</a>, clergy, doctrines, and sacraments.<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34">[note 3]</a></sup> The argument basically boils down to a familiar attack on the curricula and values taught in public schools, whose teachers Coulter regards as "clergy" baptising children into the cult of liberalism, and the alleged <a href="/wiki/Liberal_media" title="Liberal media">liberal bias of the media</a>. It also involves lumping together many beliefs and stances, such as evolutionary theory and the <a href="/wiki/Pro-choice" title="Pro-choice">pro-choice</a> movement, which, although held by many liberals, are not part of a strict set of political or religious tenets. Furthermore, it takes <a href="/wiki/Blood_libel" title="Blood libel">a really warped stretch of the imagination</a> to see <a href="/wiki/Abortion" title="Abortion">abortions</a> as religiously-motivated "<a href="/wiki/Human_sacrifice" title="Human sacrifice">virgin sacrifices</a>", as Coulter apparently does.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35">[32]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36">[33]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="The_market_as_a_religion">The market as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: The market as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Extreme forms of <a href="/wiki/Neoliberalism" title="Neoliberalism">neoliberalism</a> have been characterized pejoratively as "market-worship" or "market fundamentalism" (the term 'market fundamentalism' was coined by Jonathan Benthall in 1991<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37">[34]</a></sup> and popularized by <a href="/wiki/George_Soros" title="George Soros">George Soros</a><sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38">[35]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:xx</sup>). Ernest Partridge identifies the sacred text as <a href="/wiki/Adam_Smith" title="Adam Smith">Adam Smith</a>'s <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, which explicates the all-powerful force of <a href="/wiki/Invisible_hand" class="mw-redirect" title="Invisible hand">"The Invisible Hand"</a> (even though Smith himself would disagree with this interpretation). He further identifies <a href="/wiki/Conservative" class="mw-redirect" title="Conservative">conservative</a> and <a href="/wiki/Libertarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Libertarian">libertarian</a> <a href="/wiki/Think_tank" title="Think tank">think-tanks</a> as "seminaries", pundits as the "priesthood", and the <a href="/wiki/Government" title="Government">government</a> as "the <a href="/wiki/Devil" class="mw-redirect" title="Devil">devil</a>".<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39">[36]</a></sup> Mark Wexler has also used the concept of the invisible hand in connection with <a href="/wiki/Intelligent_design" title="Intelligent design">intelligent-design</a> <a href="/wiki/Creationism" title="Creationism">creationism</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-40">[37]</a></sup> </p><p>The Market-God can have various co-gods or sub-gods,<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41">[note 4]</a></sup> such as <a href="/wiki/Capitalism" title="Capitalism">capitalism</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-42">[38]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Business" class="mw-redirect" title="Business">Business</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43">[39]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:15-16</sup><sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44">[40]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:17-18</sup> and <a href="/wiki/Economics" title="Economics">The Economy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45">[41]</a></sup> (Our economy — not someone else's.) <a href="/wiki/Donald_Trump" title="Donald Trump">Politicians</a> of the <a href="/wiki/Populism" title="Populism">populist sect</a> may conceptually subdivide the Market-God and concentrate on its divine offspring, the Job-Market-God.<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46">[42]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Reason_as_a_religion">Reason as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Reason as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:177px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg/175px-Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg" decoding="async" width="175" height="261" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg/263px-Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg/350px-Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg 2x" data-file-width="469" data-file-height="700" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Temple_de_la_raison_et_de_la_philosophie.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>The Temple of Reason and Philosophy.</div></div></div> <p>During the bleakest days of the <a href="/wiki/French_Revolution" title="French Revolution">French Revolution</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason" class="extiw" title="wp:Cult of Reason" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Cult of Reason">Cult of Reason</span></a><sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> was established by the newly-created French Republic. The atheistic state religion was created as an attempt to substitute for the <a href="/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church" title="Roman Catholic Church">Roman Catholic Church</a>, and would soon resort to the same methods used by its predecessor. The Cult of Reason transformed the Catholic altars into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Reason" class="extiw" title="wp:Temple of Reason" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Temple of Reason">"Temples of Reason"</span></a><sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> and even had its own liturgy, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason#Festival_of_Reason" class="extiw" title="wp:Cult of Reason" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Cult of Reason#Festival of Reason">"Festival of Reason"</span></a>.<sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> The persecution of the Catholic Church by the adherents of the new cult <a href="/wiki/Backfire_effect" title="Backfire effect">unsurprisingly strengthened the opposition to the Revolution</a><sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-47">[43]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:739</sup> and, as a result, the Cult of Reason was replaced in 1794 by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Supreme_Being" class="extiw" title="wp:Cult of the Supreme Being" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Cult of the Supreme Being">Cult of the Supreme Being</span></a>,<sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> which made the same blunders nonetheless. Both religions were finally abolished less than a decade later by <a href="/wiki/Napoleon_Bonaparte" title="Napoleon Bonaparte">Napoleon Bonaparte</a>, who made Catholicism once more the <i>de facto</i> official religion in France.<sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-48">[44]</a></sup> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Transhumanism_as_a_religion">Transhumanism as a religion</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Transhumanism as a religion">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p><a href="/wiki/Transhumanism" title="Transhumanism">Transhumanism</a> has been characterized as a techno-<a href="/wiki/Utopian" class="mw-redirect" title="Utopian">utopian</a> political ideology and a secular religion.<sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-49">[45]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-50">[46]</a></sup> The <a href="/wiki/Singularity" title="Singularity">Singularity</a> in particular has been derided as a "<a href="/wiki/Rapture" title="Rapture">rapture</a> of the nerds".<sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-51">[47]</a></sup> Other quasi-religious concepts infest the philosophy, such as the <a href="/wiki/Cartesian" class="mw-redirect" title="Cartesian">Cartesian</a> <a href="/wiki/Dualism" title="Dualism">dualism</a> implied by <a href="/wiki/Mind_uploading" title="Mind uploading">mind uploading</a> and the quest for <a href="/wiki/Immortality" title="Immortality">immortality</a> in <a href="/wiki/Cryonics" title="Cryonics">cryonics</a>. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Personality_cults">Personality cults</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: Personality cults">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div role="note" class="hatnote">See the main article on this topic: <a href="/wiki/Personality_cult" title="Personality cult">Personality cult</a></div> <p>Personality cults that lack supernatural elements are often characterized as secular religions. The <a href="/wiki/Juche" title="Juche">Juche</a> movement in North Korea, also referred to as Kimilsungism, is regarded by some as a religion, with worshiping former dictator <a href="/wiki/Kim_Il_Sung" class="mw-redirect" title="Kim Il Sung">Kim Il Sung</a> as a major component. </p><p>There is similar sentiment regarding <a href="/wiki/Objectivism" title="Objectivism">objectivism</a>, which is reflected in the term "<a href="/wiki/Randroid" class="mw-redirect" title="Randroid">Randroid</a>". </p><p><a href="/wiki/Synanon" title="Synanon">Synanon</a>, a drug treatment center with an <a href="/wiki/Authoritarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Authoritarian">authoritarian</a> leader, even recognized its de facto status as a religion despite being a secular movement, and attempted in the mid-1970s to legally reorganize as the Church of Synanon. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Atheistic_religions">Atheistic religions</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Atheistic religions">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Although atheism alone is not a religion, it is possible for an atheist to hold religious beliefs, and some religious sects or groups are largely nontheistic.<sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-52">[48]</a></sup> </p> <ul><li>Nontheist Friends are Quakers who do not believe in the personal God of the <a href="/wiki/Bible" title="Bible">Bible</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-53">[49]</a></sup></li> <li>Many Theravada <a href="/wiki/Buddhism" title="Buddhism">Buddhists</a> lack belief in any deities in the traditional <a href="/wiki/Western" title="Western">Western</a> sense (the Buddha was <b>not</b> a god, although stories of his life often have supernatural aspects).</li> <li>Some sects of <a href="/wiki/Hinduism" title="Hinduism">Hinduism</a> accept atheism as a stance one can take, while the Charvaka, Mīmāṃsā, and Samkhya schools of Hinduism are explicitly atheistic.</li> <li>LaVeyan <a href="/wiki/Satanism" title="Satanism">Satanists</a> almost exclusively deny the existence of God, but it's <a href="/wiki/Parody_religion" title="Parody religion">a very tongue-in-cheek "religion"</a>.</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism" title="Unitarian Universalism">Unitarian Universalists</a> have diverse views of theology, but atheists and other non-Christians outnumber Christians within the church.</li> <li>There are various types of nontheistic <a href="/wiki/Judaism" title="Judaism">Judaism</a>. Beliefs usually range from strict adherence to the laws of the <a href="/wiki/Torah" title="Torah">Torah</a> without a belief in the Jewish god to those who simply were born into or participate in elements of Jewish culture, making it more of an ethnic than religious identity. This usually goes by the name of "secular Judaism", "cultural Judaism", or "Jewish atheism".</li> <li>Dudeism is a non-theistic religion based on <a href="/wiki/Taoism" title="Taoism">Taoism</a>, using the film <i>The Big Lebowski</i> to spread its message of chilling out with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Russian_(cocktail)" class="extiw" title="wp:White Russian (cocktail)" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: White Russian (cocktail)">White Russians</span></a>,<sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> <a href="/wiki/Weed" class="mw-redirect" title="Weed">weed</a>, and going bowling.<sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-54">[50]</a></sup></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ra%C3%ABlism" title="Raëlism">Raëlism</a> is a non-theistic religion that doesn't believe in [any Earth] Gods; however, it does feature <a href="/wiki/Aliens" class="mw-redirect" title="Aliens">aliens</a> that adherents view as essentially divine (though believers claim that these aliens are not supernatural beings).</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Humanism" title="Humanism">Humanism</a> is not a religion, but organisations such as <a href="/wiki/Humanists_UK" title="Humanists UK">Humanists UK</a> provide officiants for weddings and funerals, taking roles traditionally filled by religious figures.</li> <li>Researchers of New Religious Movements note that some "therapy cults" (e.g., <a href="/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training" title="Erhard Seminars Training">Erhard Seminars Training</a> and derivatives) have religious elements.<sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-55">[51]</a></sup><sup class="reference" style="white-space:nowrap;">:166</sup></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_paganism" class="extiw" title="wp:Secular paganism" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Secular paganism">Atheopaganism</span></a><sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> upholds the values associated with <a href="/wiki/Neopaganism" title="Neopaganism">neopaganism</a> (respect for nature and others, <a href="/wiki/Equality" title="Equality">equality</a> of sexes, celebration of festivities such as those of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year" class="extiw" title="wp:Wheel of the Year" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Wheel of the Year">Wheel of the Year</span></a>),<sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> while at the same time having a secular worldview: rejecting the supernatural elements, considering deities as personifications of different concepts, regarding <a href="/wiki/Magic" title="Magic">magic</a> to be just psychological, and supporting science.</li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="div-col columns column-count column-count-2" style="-moz-column-count: 2; -webkit-column-count: 2; column-count: 2;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Atheist_fundamentalism" title="Atheist fundamentalism">Atheist fundamentalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Civil_religion" title="Civil religion">Civil religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones" title="Georgia Guidestones">Georgia Guidestones</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ideology" title="Ideology">Ideology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Non-Overlapping_Magisteria" title="Non-Overlapping Magisteria">Non-Overlapping Magisteria</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Parody_religion" title="Parody religion">Parody religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Personality_cult" title="Personality cult">Personality cult</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Scientism" title="Scientism">Scientism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Secular_humanism" title="Secular humanism">Secular humanism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sociology_of_religion" title="Sociology of religion">Sociology of religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Essay:Atheism_is_a_religion" title="Essay:Atheism is a religion">Essay:Atheism is a religion</a> and the debate on its <a href="/wiki/Essay_talk:Atheism_is_a_religion" title="Essay talk:Atheism is a religion">talk page</a></li></ul></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://andrewgelman.com/2010/01/climate_change_1/">Climate change as a religion, and the more general use of “religion” as a term of insult</a>, Andrew Gelman</li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/sppupdate/Nelson_Examines_Secular_Religion">Economist Bob Nelson Examines Secular Religions</a>, University of Maryland</li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Notes">Notes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: Notes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Ultimately, there is no <i>firm</i> evidence for or against the existence of any god(s), with all things that could be claimed as evidence in either direction having alternative explanations and counterarguments of at least moderate validity. While there is no "smoking gun" (or even an argument that lacks any <a href="/wiki/Logical_fallacy" title="Logical fallacy">severe flaws</a>) that actually proves the existence of god(s) without requiring <a href="/wiki/Faith" title="Faith">faith</a> to be convinced in the first place, one who disbelieves in all gods is equally unable to prove their point because of the inherent difficulty of <a href="/wiki/Negative_proof" class="mw-redirect" title="Negative proof">proving a negative</a>, and can only go so far as to argue that god(s) is/are <i>unlikely</i> to exist. Ultimately, though, it is infeasible for debating to convince anyone to <a href="/wiki/Apostasy" title="Apostasy">abandon their religion</a>, accept a religious belief, or otherwise move from one religion or non-religious stance to another, at least in part because a person's worldview, including their religious <a href="/wiki/Belief" title="Belief">belief</a> or lack thereof, tends to be a deeply-entrenched part of their identity as a human being, akin to ethnicity or nationality. Thus, a person cannot readily change their mind about religion without accepting that everything they thought they knew about the world was <s>a lie</s> faulty information, and thus enduring intense <a href="/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance" title="Cognitive dissonance">cognitive dissonance</a> in the process. If a person <i>does</i> change their mind about religion, it is likely to be the result of a fairly long period of introspection, not getting smacked down in a debate.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-14">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">For example, only a few months after his death, Washington was the subject of his first <a href="/wiki/Hagiography" title="Hagiography">hagiography</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-weems_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-weems-13">[12]</a></sup></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-34">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Of course, Ann's definition of "liberalism" is in the modern American sense (i.e. conflating "liberalism" with left-wing, progressive ideology), and would almost certainly look strange (<a href="/wiki/Not_even_wrong" title="Not even wrong">well, <i>stranger</i></a>) to Canadian, European, Latin/South American, Asian, African, or Australian audiences.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-41"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-41">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Persons of the <a href="/wiki/Trinity" title="Trinity">Trinity</a>, demigods, <a href="/wiki/Saint" title="Saint">saints</a> — take your pick of the available theological terminology…</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; -webkit-column-count:2; column-count:2; font-size:80%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100227202840/http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/atheismreligion.html">Religion of Atheism</a> by Adrian Barnett (archived from February 27, 2010).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130329021100/http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/ath/blathm_rel_religion.htm">Atheism & Religion: Atheism Myths</a> by Austin Cline,<i>About.com</i> (archived from March 29, 2013).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-4">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130329182658/http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutatheism/p/AtheismReligion.htm">Is Atheism a Religion? Defining Atheism and Religion</a> by Austin Cline,<i>About.com</i> (archived from March 29, 2013).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-5">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060709222830/http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45874">Court rules atheism a religion</a> (August 20, 2005) <i>World Net Daily</i> (archived from July 9, 2006).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-6">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/01/26/oh-please/">Oh, Please.</a> by PZ Myers (26 January 2012) <i>Freethought Blogs</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-7">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120309164956/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/25/alain-de-botton-atheist-temples">Alain de Botton wants 'temples for atheists'</a> by Duncan Geere (25 January 12) <i>Wired UK</i> (archived from March 9, 2012).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-8">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nontheistfriends.org/">Welcome!</a> <i>nontheistfriends.org</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-9">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontheist_Quakers" class="extiw" title="wp:Nontheist Quakers" rel="nofollow">Nontheist Quakers</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-10">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/04/quakers-dropping-god">The Quakers are right. We don’t need God</a> by Simon Jenkins (Fri 4 May 2018 02.00 EDT) <i>The Guardian</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-11">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/survey-finds-2-anglican-priests-are-not-believers-9821899.html">Two per cent of Anglican priests don't believe in God, survey finds</a> by Jonathan Wynne-Jones (27 October 2014 19:17) <i>The Independent</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-12">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171014104242/https://www.thoughtco.com/coming-of-age-ritual-in-germany-1444322">An Interesting Coming of Age Ritual in Germany</a> by Michael Schmitz (Updated February 28, 2017) <i>Thought.co,</i> (archived from October 14, 2017).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-weems-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-weems_13-0">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>A History, of the Life and Death, virtues, and Exploits of General George Washington</i> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_Locke_Weems" class="extiw" title="wp:Mason Locke Weems" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Mason Locke Weems">Mason Locke Weems</span></a><sup><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> (1800) John Bioren.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-ham-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ <sup><a href="#cite_ref-ham_15-0">13.0</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-ham_15-1">13.1</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-ham_15-2">13.2</a></sup></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150319222301/https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/evolution-is-religion/"><i>The Lie: Evolution</i>. Chapter 2: Evolution Is Religion</a> by Ken Ham (July 1, 1987) <i>Answers in Genesis</i> (archived from March 19, 2015).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-16">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion">religion: noun</a> <i>Merriam-Webster's Dictionary</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-17">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ncse.com/news/2015/05/antievolution-lawsuit-filed-west-virginia-0016380">Antievolution lawsuit filed in West Virginia</a> National Center for Science Education (May 22nd, 2015)</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-18">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The True Origin of Man</i> by Kenneth Smith (2013) iUniverse. ISBN 1475989660.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-19">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/299/5612/1523">Is Evolution a Secular Religion?</a> by Michael Ruse (7 Mar 200) <i>Science</i> 299(5612):1523-1524. doi:10.1126/science.1082968.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-20">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Evolution as a Religion</i> by Mary Midgley (2002) Routledge. 2<sup>nd</sup> edition. ISBN 0415278333.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-21">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:215499#page/1/mode/1up">Eugenics as a Religion</a> by Charles Davenport, via <i>American Philosophical Society Library</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-22">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/topics_fs.pl?theme=32&search=&matches=">Topic: Religion</a> <i>Eugenics Archive</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-23">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Evolution" class="extiw" title="wp:Epic of Evolution" rel="nofollow">Epic of Evolution</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Crichton-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-Crichton_24-0">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071223234607/http://www.crichton-official.com/speech-environmentalismaseligion.html">Environmentalism as Religion</a> by Michael Crichton (September 15, 2003) Speech at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco (archived from December 23, 2007).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-25">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See, for example, Conservapedia's "<a href="https://conservapedia.com/Environmentalist" class="extiw" title="cp:Environmentalist" rel="nofollow">Environmentalist</a>" article, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/ostrowski-john1.html">Environmentalism as Religion</a>" by John M. Ostrowski, and "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/?p=307">Environmentalism is a Religion (Photographic Proof)</a>" (which featured as a main page "news" item at Conservapedia during September 2008).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-26">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130604173948/http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-religion-of-progress.html">The Religion of Progress</a> by John Michael Greer (April 10, 2013) <i>The Archdruid Report</i> (archived from June 4, 2013).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-27">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy</i> by Joseph A. Schumpeter (2008) Harper Perennial Modern Classics. 3<sup>rd</sup> edition. ISBN 0061561614.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-28">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Imperium</i> by Richard Kapuściński (1993) Czytelnik. ISBN 9029525134.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-29">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/05/understanding-karl-marx-hoisted-from-the-archives-from-four-years-ago-may-day-weblogging.html">Understanding Karl Marx: Hoisted from the Archives from Four Years Ago May Day Weblogging</a> by Brad DeLong (May 01, 2013 at 03:45) <i>Typepad</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-30">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>A History of Western Philosophy</i> by Bertrand Russell (1945) Simon & Schuster.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-31">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes</i> by Richard Davenport-Hines (2015) Basic Books. ISBN 0465060676.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-32">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.newsweek.com/chinas-xi-jinping-tells-party-members-marxism-socialism-should-lifes-purposes-1605153">China's Xi Jinping Tells Party Members Marxism, Socialism Should Be 'Life's Purposes'</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-godless-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ <sup><a href="#cite_ref-godless_33-0">31.0</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-godless_33-1">31.1</a></sup></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Godless: The Church of Liberalism</i> by Ann Coulter (2006) Crown Forum. ISBN 1400054206.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-35">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070912224443/http://atheism.about.com/od/godlessamericaamericans/p/GodlessChurch.htm">Is There a Godless Church of Liberalism or Atheism? Responding to Ann Coulter</a> by Austin Cline (2007) <i>About.com</i> (archived from September 12, 2007).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-36">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070917195618/http://atheism.about.com/od/godlessliberals/p/LiberalReligion.htm">Is Godless Liberalism a Religion?</a> by Austin Cline (2007) <i>About.com</i> (archived from September 17, 2007).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-37">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">"Inside information on 'the market'" by Jonathan Benthall (1991) <i>Anthropology Today</i> 7(4):1–2.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-38">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered</i> by George Soros (1998) PublicAffairs. ISBN 1891620274.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-39">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/01/10_religion.html">The State Religion</a> by Ernest Partridge (January 10, 2002) <i>Democratic Underground</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-40"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-40">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">"The other invisible hand emanates out of the notion of intelligent design (Carey, 1998; Dembski, 2002; Ruse 2004)." by Mark Wexler, <i>Journal of Ideology</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-42"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-42">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Capitalism as Religion? A Study of Paul Tillich's Interpretation of Modernity</i> by Francis Ching-Wah (2010) Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674021479.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-43"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-43">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">[<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ACxuy_kCWY0C">https://books.google.com/books?id=ACxuy_kCWY0C</a> <i>The Religion of Business and the Business of Religion</i> by Alfred Bowen EVANS (1856) Edward Lumley. "That a life of business and a life of devotion to God must go together, with the Apostle's admonition before our minds, there can be no question … business and religion, the duties of this life and the preparation for the life to come, with a man of fervent spirit, are not two things, so much as two phases of the same thing."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-44"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-44">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>God Goes to Work: New Thought Paths to Prosperity and Profits</i> by Tom Zender (2010) John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0470563656. "It has even been stated that people today do indeed worship at work instead of at church. … Business-as-religion never took hold of the United States and the other major world states in the way conspiracy theorists once feared it would; but those brief years are just one example of how spirituality and business have attempted, and failed at, amalgamation. Spirituality and business have a natural attraction. Like opposite sides of a magnet, they are eternally drawn to each other through their similar roots. They are flipsides of the most basic of all concepts: the transaction."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-45"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-45">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Religion as Economy and Economy as Religion</i> by Jonathan Friedman (1998) Rowman Altamira. 2<sup>nd</sup> edition. ISBN 0761989331.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-46"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-46">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">See the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_market" class="extiw" title="wp:Job market" rel="nofollow">Job market</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-47"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-47">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The History of the World</i> by J. M. Roberts & Odd Arne Westad (2013) Oxford University Press. 6th edition. ISBN 0199936765.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-48"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-48">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/diplomatic/c_concordat.html">Documents upon Napoleon and the Reorganization of Religion.</a> <i>The Napoleon Series</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-49"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-49">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150721172858/http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/bruere20150715">Transhumanism – The Final Religion?</a> by Dirk Bruere (July 16, 2015) <i>Insitute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies</i> (archived from July 21, 2015).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-50"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-50">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thinkbeyond.us/religion.html">Is Transhumanism a Religion?</a> by Franklin Veaux, <i>Think Beyond Us</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-51"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-51">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://time.com/66536/terasem-trascendence-religion-technology/">The Rapture of the Nerds</a> by Jessica Roy & Melbourne Beach (April 17, 2014 2:02 PM EDT) <i>Time</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-52"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-52">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110216140856/http://www.religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm">The Big Religion Chart</a> <i>Religion Facts</i> *(archived from February 16, 2011).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-53"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-53">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nontheistfriends.org/article/what-is-a-nontheist/">What is a Nontheist?</a> by James Riemermann (September 20, 2006) <i>nontheistfriends.org</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-54"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-54">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://dudeism.com/">Dudeism.com</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-55"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-55">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions</i> by Elisabeth Arweck (2006) Taylor & Francis. ISBN 041527754X. "Schneider (1995: 189-190) lists organizations, such as Landmark Education, <i>Verein zur Foerderung der Psychologischen Menschenkenntnis</i> (VPM), Scientology/Dianetics, <i>Ontologische Einweihungsschule (Hannes Scholl), EAP, and </i>Die Bewegung<i> (Silo) as examples of 'therapy cults'. These groups do not immediately suggest religion or </i>Weltanschauung<i>, but reveal ideological and religious elements on closer inspection.</i></span> </li> </ol></div></div>    </div></div><div class="printfooter">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&oldid=2671505">https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Secular_religions&oldid=2671505</a>"</div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Bronze-level_articles" title="Category:Bronze-level articles">Bronze-level articles</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Atheism" title="Category:Atheism">Atheism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Authoritarianism" title="Category:Authoritarianism">Authoritarianism</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Philosophy" 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