Religion, Science, and Secularism

This article provides an historical overview of the relationship between religion, science, and secularism, noting the ambiguity of these terms and their relationship to atheism, agnosticism, and materialism. The first section clarifies the term “secularism” and discusses the rise and fall of the Secularization Thesis, according to which secularism is the mark of modernity so that all societies necessarily secularize as they become modern. Since the Secularization Thesis was found inadequate to explain the fact that religion failed to disappear, sociologists and social theorists now characterize contemporary society as “post-secular.” In the second section, this article explains why and how science has been viewed as a secularizing force during the nineteenth century, first in England and then in the United States. Focusing on the reception of Darwin’s theory of evolution, this article highlights the Scopes Trial (1925) in Dayton, Tennessee, and its aftermath later in the twentieth century. Although the perceived conflict between religion and science pertained to teaching evolution in public schools, the debates were inseparable from the social forces that shaped American public life: immigration, race relations, and religious pluralism. In the third section, the article looks more closely at contemporary post-secular society, in which the assumptions of modern science have been challenged and various forms of “secular spirituality” have emerged. The article highlights ecological spirituality and technological spirituality as two examples of secular spirituality in which science and religion are hybridized. In the post-secular age hybridization of religion and science exists side by side with persistent appeal of secularism and scientism.