(June 21, 2019 at 12:00 am)Hungry Hungry Hippo Wrote: Could you elaborate on the difference between "less religious" and "more secular"?
(June 21, 2019 at 5:23 am)Little lunch Wrote: I've thought about this, deeply, for about ten minutes and I don't get the difference either.
It might help to clarify if I put things in terms of secular/religious societies.
So, to me anyway, a secular society is not a society where no religion is to be found. It is a society that doesn't concern itself with religion. To a secularist it doesn't matter if people are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. It matters that they are people. A secular society doesn't aim to stifle religion. A secular society embraces humanistic values, but not anti-religious ones.
A religious society promotes the values of a particular religion. For example: Women are second class citizens in Saudi Arabia. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia. That's because Saudi Arabia is a religious society. If I wanted to "improve" the situation in Saudi Arabia, I wouldn't try to stamp out Islam. I would rather implement women's rights, gay rights etc. and make the country hospitable to anyone with any sort of belief.
In short, secularism creates societies that people of all creeds (or no creed at all) can live within and thrive. Religious societies favor the value system of a particular religion. Hence, my view is that we should be "more secular" rather than fighting to make society "less religious"... make sense?
