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The Temptation of Secularism

Professor Reeves is the author of A Question of Character: A Life of John F. Kennedy. He has just finished a biography of Wisconsin Governor Walter J. Kohler, Jr. Mr. Reeves is a Senior Fellow of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

It is commonplace these days for some journalists and many intellectuals to blame religion for much of the worlds ills. Look at foreign affairs, they say. The Muslim fanatics blowing themselves and others to bits really think they’re going to rewarded in heaven with 40 virgins. Those cowboys and Zionists who are running American foreign policy and endangering the world think they are doing the will of the God. At home, Catholics and others are at work to prevent the research necessary to cure many diseases. Right-wing evangelicals constantly plot to impose their moral restrictions on others. It is only the sober, educated rationalists, we are told, who can see realities beyond the superstitions and bring justice and truth to a world hungering for peace and prosperity. Rid the globe of religion and you free the human mind, at last, to create the wonders of which it is capable.

This is the dogma of the 18th century Enlightenment, of course, later embraced by Marxists who murdered clergy and destroyed churches whenever the opportunity arose. This secular dogma lives still, especially among leftist intellectuals and media moguls who often see themselves as the high priests of knowledge and learning. Woven into their arguments are almost always appeals to end definitions of right and wrong, a move that has the advantage of destroying all moral inhibitions and sanctions. Free sex for a free people.

Since the Second World War, Western Europe has become increasingly secular. After 1960, Easter services in the Church of England attracted only two percent of the British people. By the 1990s, only 40 percent of marriages in England and Wales were solemnized in a church. Mass attendance in France has fallen to six percent on a given Sunday. Spain has endorsed homosexual marriage. The Dutch are almost wholly secular people. And so on. Now that Christianity is disappearing, European peoples should be awaiting the dawn of reason and happiness. If it only weren’t for those religious crazies and Texas loonies who keep believing they are doing the will of God.

Several things are wrong with this hoary and naive approach to truth. In the first place, there is no such thing as a purely secular person. The innate passion for religion can never be wholly suppressed. Although it wasn’t G. K. Chesterton who said it, this venerable thought rings true: “When men stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing. They believe in anything.” The objects of human worship know no limit. On the crudest level, there are the millions who revere athletes, movie and television stars, rock stars, automobiles, pornography, drugs, and gambling. On a slightly higher level, millions bow to race, the nation, status, wealth, political parties, art forms, clubs, cities, and colleges. Millions put their faith in horoscopes, cults, gurus, fads, and diets. On its most intellectual level, the most common form of worship by the avowed secularist is found in the mirror, and many a professor has been able to smile throughout life by pondering its reflection.

Secondly, there is no such single, objective thing as “reason.” That we have rational powers cannot be denied, of course, but the sad truth is that in many areas of life, especially the ethical and moral, “reason” tends to tell us what we want to hear. This is the huge flaw in the historical works of Herbert J. Muller, beginning with the impressive Uses of the Past. Muller thought that all “reasonable” people, throughout history, would naturally see things in the same way, and that superstition and ignorance were responsible for blocking the consensus. Education is vital, of course, as is reason. But human beings and history aren’t as simply understood as Muller thought.

Thirdly, a life without divine inspiration, consolation, and hope often leads to rage and despair rather than happiness. I have experienced this myself and know that many others have also. Paul Johnson and Malcom Muggeridge have written on this theme at length. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis examined the issue carefully centuries ago. St. Paul understood the matter fully.

Fourthly, what are the fruits of militant secularism? Are the lives of Robespierre, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao not instructive? And have we no personal knowledge of the utter misery that has plagued friends who mistakenly thought they could live happy and completely secular lives? As for wholly secular states, Oz Guinness, writing in the Wilson Quarterly (Spring 2005) observed, “It’s a simple fact…that, contrary to the current scapegoating of religion, more people were slaughtered during the 20th century under secularist regimes, led by secularist intellectuals, and in the name of secularist ideologies, than in all the religious persecutions in Western history.” Read that again, slowly.

One last point: Suppose the claims of Christianity are true, and there are eternal verities leading to a peaceful and productive life, and eternal consequences stemming from our faith and related activities? Suppose our Green Bay Packer shirts, porn sites, expensive homes, stock portfolios, advanced degrees, and mirrors are inadequate guides to the good life and death? Let us open our minds and think further about the possibilities and joys of a wholly secular existence.