Good Without God: The Future of Faith Conversations

By Aaron Kamps

My Cat-alysts

• Independent study

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• Cat’s Cradle

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• The Secular Paradox: The Religiosity of the Not Religious

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The Questions

• What is the definition of a secularist?
• How does a non-religious group come to be called religious?
• Why should we look at this phenomenon?
• How when looking deeper do we find that the intersection between the religious and secular is even greater than we could ever imagine?

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Shahzia Sikander and Jim Shaw Turn

Definitions

“Secular” and “secularism” can describe secular people, the separation of church and state, and the creation and regulation of religion.

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• Joseph Blankholm

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Secularism is “a way of denoting an ethical framework independent of religion while avoiding the negative connotations that were associated with the term ‘atheism,’ which had long been considered to pose a threat to the social order”

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• George Holyoake

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Secularism’s Political Realities

• Religious legal exemptions for secularists

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• Vaccine exemptions for secularists

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• Tax code: Churches and Religious Organizations: The tax code, specifically Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, grants tax-exempt status to organizations operated for religious, charitable, scientific, or educational purposes. This includes secular organizations.

Secularism’s Political Realities

Religion and Secularism now fall under the same classification of “belief”

The Secular Paradox

• The realities of the everyday secularist
• Different versions of secularism for different people
• Different levels of commitment

Secular Purity

For many secularist there exists an idea of secular purity which allows them to feel as if they are adhering to their secularist values on a regular basis. This lifestyle is not as simple as being merely non-religious, but instead demonstrates a deeper commitment to being fully separated from religion. One of the most important ways that secularists do this is through their definitions.

Religious Purity

Religious and Secular purity are the same in there ways of devotion and commitment to their beliefs.

Unitarian Society: a Unique Religious Option

• The Unitarian society as a place to explore faith with more flexibility.

• A community to connect with like minded people with similar beliefs like social justice.

These two are not the same but yet they coexist without judgement in the same place how does this happen?

A religious Unitarian

A secular Unitarian

The Future of Faith Conversations

A continued conversation of what is a religion

A inclusion of secularists in the conversation between faiths

Thank you