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History section
Contemporary ethical debate is often described as "secular", with the work of [[Derek Parfit]] and [[Peter Singer]], and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, having been described or self-described as explicitly secular or non-religious.<ref>{{Citation |publisher = Clarendon Press |isbn = 0198246153 |publication-place = Oxford [Oxfordshire] |title = Reasons and persons |url = http://openlibrary.org/books/OL3172889M/Reasons_and_persons |author = Derek Parfit |publication-date = 1984 |id = 0198246153 }}</ref><ref>[[Brian Leiter]], "[http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/06/is-secular-moral-theory-really-relatively-young.html Is "Secular Moral Theory" Really Relatively Young?], ''Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog'', June 28, 2009.</ref><ref>[[Richard Dawkins]], "[http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=dawkins_18_2 When Religion Steps on Science's Turf: The Alleged Separation Between the Two Is Not So Tidy]", ''Free Inquiry'' vol. 18, no. 2.</ref><ref>{{Cite pmid|16423736}}</ref>
Contemporary ethical debate is often described as "secular", with the work of [[Derek Parfit]] and [[Peter Singer]], and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, having been described or self-described as explicitly secular or non-religious.<ref>{{Citation |publisher = Clarendon Press |isbn = 0198246153 |publication-place = Oxford [Oxfordshire] |title = Reasons and persons |url = http://openlibrary.org/books/OL3172889M/Reasons_and_persons |author = Derek Parfit |publication-date = 1984 |id = 0198246153 }}</ref><ref>[[Brian Leiter]], "[http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/06/is-secular-moral-theory-really-relatively-young.html Is "Secular Moral Theory" Really Relatively Young?], ''Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog'', June 28, 2009.</ref><ref>[[Richard Dawkins]], "[http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=dawkins_18_2 When Religion Steps on Science's Turf: The Alleged Separation Between the Two Is Not So Tidy]", ''Free Inquiry'' vol. 18, no. 2.</ref><ref>{{Cite pmid|16423736}}</ref>
==History of Secularism==
The derivation of an ethical code from purely secular "worldly" concerns begins in Ancient Greece with the philosophical study of nature. The Hebrew term for ''nature'' is not found in the Bible.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=LT1V8Xgz1EUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=hebrew&f=false|author=Leo Strauss|title=Natural Right and History|pate=80}}</ref> Hence, natural law, natural justice, and natural rights are Hellenic in origin. Greek and Roman philosophers, while not atheists, nevertheless built their ethnical philosophy from natural considerations.
Christian theologians differed on their assessment of secular thought. [[Tertullian]] asks "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" On the other hand, [[Thomas Aquinas]] championed secular thought and provocatively starts the [[Summa Theologica]] with the question: "Whether, besides philosophy, any further doctrine is required?"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1001.htm|title=Summa Theologica|author=Thomas Aquinas}}</ref> After Aquinas, a harmony between secular thought and religion was the rule until the 19th century. The notion of secularism being inherently anti-religious become the norm after the [[French Revolution]].
==Further reading==
==Further reading==