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Secularization thesis (view source)
Revision as of 10:19, January 31, 2017
, 10:19, January 31, 2017→Niles Frasier: The secularization thesis was a myth
However, human history did not follow this "reasonable" path to a secular utopia. The closing decades of the 20th century "provide a massive falsification of the idea" that modernization and secularization will lead to a decline in religion. Instead, we are witnessing a massive upsurge in religion around the world (The [[Desecularization]] of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Berger, p. 6). This resurgence of religion has also played a part in an increasing number of violent conflicts around the world. Secular intellectuals and elites have been shocked by this development, because it is proving that their fundamental assumptions about human beings and human society are absolutely wrong! The modern secular notion that religion is archaic and irrelevant has caused many to overlook the importance of religion in human affairs. As a result, they have been taken by surprise by the return of religion. As Peter Berger, one of the world's leading sociologists of religion, wrote: "Those who neglect religion in their analysis of contemporary affairs do so at great peril" (Berger, p. 18). But what has spawned the modern revival of religion, and the spreading rejection of secular society?<ref>[http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2005/november-december/the-return-of-religion The Return of Religion]</ref>}}
However, human history did not follow this "reasonable" path to a secular utopia. The closing decades of the 20th century "provide a massive falsification of the idea" that modernization and secularization will lead to a decline in religion. Instead, we are witnessing a massive upsurge in religion around the world (The [[Desecularization]] of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Berger, p. 6). This resurgence of religion has also played a part in an increasing number of violent conflicts around the world. Secular intellectuals and elites have been shocked by this development, because it is proving that their fundamental assumptions about human beings and human society are absolutely wrong! The modern secular notion that religion is archaic and irrelevant has caused many to overlook the importance of religion in human affairs. As a result, they have been taken by surprise by the return of religion. As Peter Berger, one of the world's leading sociologists of religion, wrote: "Those who neglect religion in their analysis of contemporary affairs do so at great peril" (Berger, p. 18). But what has spawned the modern revival of religion, and the spreading rejection of secular society?<ref>[http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2005/november-december/the-return-of-religion The Return of Religion]</ref>}}
== Niles Frasier: The secularization thesis was a myth ==
== Failed predictions of the demise of religion ==
''See also:'' [[Failed predictions of the decline of religion]]
Dr. Rodney Stark's in his book ''The Triumph of Faith'' wrote:
{{cquote|People want to know why the universe exists, not that it exists for no reason, and they don't want their lives to be pointless. Only religion provides credible and satisfactory answers to the great existential questions. The most ardent wishes of the secularization faithful will never change that.
"Secularists have been predicting the imminent demise of religion for centuries. They have always been wrong—and their claims today are no different. It is their unshakable faith in secularization that may be the most "irrational" of all beliefs." (p. 212).<ref>[http://www.christianpost.com/news/world-more-religious-than-ever-rodney-starks-triumph-faith-secularism-atheism-154641/ Despite What You've Heard, World Is More Religious Than Ever], Christian Post</ref>}}
Stark wrote in his book ''Acts of Faith'':
{{cquote|For nearly three centuries social scientists and assorted Western intellectuals have been promising the end of religion. Each generation has been confident that within another few decades, or possibly a bit longer, humans will 'outgrow' belief in the supernatural. This proposition soon came to be known as the secularization thesis.<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/02/oh-gods/302412/ Oh, Gods!] by Toby Lester, ''The Atlantic''</ref>}}
A 2003 paper published by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at [[Harvard University]] entitled ''The [[Secularization]] Debate'' indicates:
{{cquote|The seminal social thinkers of the nineteenth century -- [[Auguste Comte]], [[Herbert Spencer]], Emile Durkheim, [[Max Weber]], [[Karl Marx]], and [[Sigmund Freud]] -- all believed that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the advent of industrial society. They were far from alone; ever since the [[Enlightenment|Age of the Enlightenment]], leading figures in philosophy, anthropology, and psychology have postulated that theological superstitions, symbolic liturgical rituals, and sacred practices are the product of the past that will be outgrown in the modern era. The death of religion was the conventional wisdom in the social sciences during most of the twentieth century; indeed it has been regarded as the master model of sociological inquiry, where secularization was ranked with bureaucratization, rationalization, and urbanization as the key historical revolutions transforming medieval agrarian societies into modern industrial nations. As C. Wright Mills summarized this process: “Once the world was filled with the sacred – in thought, practice, and institutional form. After the [[Reformation]] and the [[Renaissance]], the forces of modernization swept across the globe and secularization, a corollary historical process, loosened the dominance of the sacred. In due course, the sacred shall disappear altogether except, possibly, in the private realm.”
During the last decade, however, this thesis of the slow and steady death of religion has
come under growing criticism; indeed secularization theory is currently experiencing the most
sustained challenge in its long history. Critics point to multiple indicators of religious health and vitality today, ranging from the continued popularity of churchgoing in the United States to the emergence of New Age spirituality in Western Europe, the growth in fundamentalist movements and religious parties in the Muslim world, the evangelical revival sweeping through Latin America, and the upsurge of ethno-religious conflict in international affairs3. After reviewing these developments, [[Peter L. Berger]], one of the foremost advocates of secularization during the 1960s, recanted his earlier claims: “The world today, with some exceptions…is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever. This means that a whole body of literature by historians and social scientists loosely labeled ‘secularization theory’ is essentially mistaken.” In a fierce and sustained critique, Rodney Stark and Roger Finke suggest it is time to bury the secularization thesis: “After nearly three centuries of utterly failed prophesies and misrepresentations of both present and past, it seems time to carry the secularization doctrine to the graveyard of failed theories, and there to whisper ‘requiescat in pace.’”<ref>[http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/Sacred_and_Secular/Chapter%201.pdf ''The Secularization Debate'']</ref>}}
=== Emergence of new religions and religious expressions ===
Toby Lester wrote in ''The Atlantic'':
{{cquote|In 1851 the French historian and philosopher Ernest Renan announced to the world that Islam was "the last religious creation of humanity." He was more than a bit premature. At about the time he was writing, the Bahai faith, [[Christian Science]], Mormonism, the Seventh-Day Adventists, and a major Japanese religious movement known as Tenrikyo were all just coming to life. [[Falun Gong]] and [[Pentecostalism]]—both of which now have millions and millions of members—had yet to emerge. Whoops.<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/02/oh-gods/302412/ Oh, Gods!] by Toby Lester, ''The Atlantic''</ref>}}
=== Peter Berger's abandonment of the secular thesis ===
In 1968, the American [[sociology|sociologist]] and author [[Peter L. Berger]] told the ''[[New York Times]]'' that by "the 21st century, religious believers are likely to be found only in small sects, huddled together to resist a worldwide secular culture."<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/02/oh-gods/302412/ Oh, Gods!] by Toby Lester, ''The Atlantic''</ref>
Berger introduced the concept of [[desecularization]] in 1999.<ref>[http://intl-jcs.oxfordjournals.org/content/52/2/232.full#fn-2 ''Journal of Church and State'', Desecularization: A Conceptual Framework by Vyacheslav Karpov, 2010]</ref><ref>Peter L. Berger, “The Desecularization of the World: A Global Overview,” in The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, ed. Peter L. Berger (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999)</ref> According to Berger, "One can say with some confidence that modern Pentecostalism must be the fastest growing religion in human history."<ref>[http://www.the-american-interest.com/2010/07/29/pentecostalism-protestant-ethic-or-cargo-cult/ Pentecostalism – Protestant Ethic or Cargo Cult?], Peter Berger, July 29, 2010</ref>
== Niles Frasier: The secularization thesis is a myth ==
[[File:Giles Frasier.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|Giles Frasier]]
[[File:Giles Frasier.jpg|thumbnail|150px|right|Giles Frasier]]
Giles Frasier wrote in ''The Guardian'':
Giles Frasier wrote in ''The Guardian'':