Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Is ID essential for secularism?

Secularism is defined as a form of government independent from solely religious sources.  It is not a priori biased in favor or against any religious position.  It can also take into account religious truth claims if they are also based on natural arguments.

However, today secularism is considered to be almost synonymous with atheism.  Such equivocation is incorrect, since atheism itself is a religious claim, and any government based on such is consequently religious and not secular.

Why does this equivocation between secularism and atheism exist today?  Well, it is because modern intellectuals have persuaded many that natural arguments for God are meaningless, since science supposedly excludes the supernatural.  But, once the supernatural is excluded, there is no ground for any claims based on theism.  The only claims valid in such a worldview are atheistic claims.  Thus, secularism disappears, since the system is now a priori completely biased in favor of atheism, and religion and state are combined.

ID breaks the stranglehold of atheism on the modern state and opens the door for secularism again.  ID shows that it is possible for natural arguments for God to exist.  Consequently, it is now rationally valid for the state to consider theistic claims.  Atheism no longer monopolizes the state and ID has saved the day.