Fors Clavigera: Taking Leave of Religion? On Secular Religion →
This blog post has the gem:
To say that humans are essentially “religious” is to claim that they are primed to worship, wired devote themselves to something as ultimate, to ascribe “worthship” to some ultimate end. So while people might be “taking leave” of belief in God or gods, or “apostasizing” from specific communities of religious practice, I don’t think that is sufficient to conclude that “religion is not universal or necessary.” On my account, secular devotion is not just “analogously” religious: it is religious. It is an expression and product of “secular liturgies.”
As a religious studies major, this certainly complicates things, but it also makes more sense. It’s a separate argument than the tired claim of fundamentalists that all people are actually religious and that New Atheism/Secular Humanism/Agnosticism are all “Religions”. I gotta think about this some more, though.
