Though often thought of with only warm fuzzy feelings and not necessarily hysteria: there was a time and is still when the mere mention of religion can make some hearts pound fast. And not with the first flush of love, dear people. Alas, tis' with fear that the collective cardiovascular system is accelerated at the sight of certain (depending on the culture, geographical location, time, etc.) totems could send the oppressed (usually, those who were not members of the mainstream religion in political power) into an anxious frenzy. This was because many times being out of the mainstream meant you were either on death row, in a drowning squad, or soon to be in one of those situations. The religions in power did and still do to this day often kill those who oppose them.
This is due to the sad fact that some people - particularly those in political power have been known to mix religion with politics or business in order to gain more control over the people. As the cunning few in positions of religions or sociological power became more aware of the fact that they could, the more they did use it. No, in fact the truth is that most if not all; wars that have been fought is over differences in religion. This idea also points to the notion that leaders have often been aware of the inflammatory nature of this cultural and social phenomena and have used it to their own ends. (RE: The Bible, King James version had a bit of a rewrite: thanks to military leader 'Constantine').
In this state of affairs man desperately continues to reach for a glimpse of the divine, often as in awakening from a dream of drowning only to find he is clutching his own hand.
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SECULARISM | The Culture of the West
In the West a culture has emerged which shares many of the characteristics of religions, called 'Secularism'. Secularism specifically repudiates any attempt to apply any sense of the supernatural to its interpretation of the world, and it uses similar techniques to impose intellectual and moral order on the chaos of existence.
Western Secularism has its own revealed truths and unexamined assumptions. Among its key contributions are democracy, capitalism, scientific skepticism, individualism, tolerance, human rights, freedom of choice and the Separation of Church and State. All this has its roots in a Judeo-Christian inheritance but, since the Enlightenment, has been shaped by a mix of other influences: Science, Rationalism, and the reductive determinism of Darwin and Freud.
For two centuries, secularism asserted the possibility of human perfectibility. Utilizing a philosophy which denied the existence of any values or forces outside the natural order, it held the natural sciences to the highest form of human knowledge. The practical changes it wrought freed energies which produced the industrial revolution, the modern democratic state, unprecedented levels of economic growth and a high culture of science, art and learning. It brought social progress which undermined inherited privilege and improved the material lives of ordinary working people.
Such evolution would continue, suggested thinkers like the German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) who spoke of an irreversible 'shift to rationalization'. As human beings became more rational they would have no need for religion. The motto is: 'From Myths to Maths'.
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