Course 1: Secularization
(This was part of a research paper I wrote last Spring hence all the references)
“There is an illness in our culture; it arises from our rigid separation of the visible world from the powers that undergird and animate it.” (Palmer 10) Modern education embodies and perpetuates the chief vice of Western culture which is secularization, as well as the other vices such as materialism, and individualism.
These problematic values come into play within the educational system in form of objectivity, the deification of science and technology, a cultivation of competition over community and a decline in ethics in regard to how we treat each other and our environment. This essay seeks to especially expose the dangerous effects of objectivity (a form of compartmentalization) which is enforced in conventional education and to explore the necessity of a “spiritual revolution,”(Dalai Lama 17) not just as the solution to the ethical problem but also as a solution to the problem posed by the “objectivist education” (Palmer 40).
The overarching vice in Western culture that influences education is secularization. An important promoter of secularization is the “separation of church and state,” a phrase derived from Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury baptist association. The First ammendment of the constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...” (US const., amend. 1) The noble purpose of this amendment is evident and commendable. The American population
is diverse in many aspects including in religious beliefs hence it was in the best interest of accommodating this diversity that this wall of separation was erected. In other words, instead of having one religion established and the others disregarded or dissolved, this “neutral ground” was created as a compromise solution. However, does the interpretation and implementation of the first amendment match up to it original purpose? Was “neutral ground” created whereby no one religion is promoted nor any religious beliefs prohibited?
Within the school system the first amendment was meant to keep administrators and teachers from endorsing their own religious viewpoints to their students, and it was also meant to keep them from “inhibiting and denigrating any particular religion, religion in general or lack of religious belief.” (Anti-Defamation League website) On the contrary, there is a double standard in how it is implemented. The freedom from religion (the establishment clause of the first amendment) is emphasized more and is more readily implemented than the freedom of religion (the free exercise clause).
From my four years experience in an American public high school and university,most of the instances when the teacher talked about religion, it involved ridiculing it or those who practiced it. For a more specific example, my high school AP English teacher once joked about how her brother had found a lot of obscene things in the Bible. I found it offensive that she shared that story the way she did; first, because it encouraged students to also ridicule those who read and believed in the Bible. Second, she did not provide the context of those obscene things that her brother found. She left out whether the Bible promoting the obscene things or demoting them. Third, without realizing it, as a literature teacher she was being hypocritical in her method of criticizing the Bible. If it was another literary text, say Hamlet, and a student in her class did not read it but decides to give an analysis based on what her brother said, the student would receive a failing grade for not reading the text and making her own analysis. Yet the teacher goes unpunished for making a similar mistake. (Hey teacher, if you are reading this... I know you were only sharing your opinion. I didn't share mine back then so I'm making up for it now. But I have nothing against you personally. You were a great teacher!) This is one of many such incidences that made my fellow classmate decide to attend a private Christian university. She said, “ In public schools you are not free to be yourself. You are not free to be a Christian and to express your faith. So I am going to a Christian university where I will be free to do that.”
In essence, the wall of separation between church and state does not provide a
“neutral ground” in which no one religion is favored but instead,it favors "secular faith". This trend can also be observed at the university level where some professors proudly and freely talk about their disbelief in God or religions in their classrooms in a way that puts down students who believe otherwise. They manage to get away
with this by thinking that since they do not believe in the existence of God or other religious components, that they are not on the same level as everyone else who does. Hence that point of view puts them on the outside where the first amendment “does not apply to them,”thus giving them the leeway to denigrate religion in the educational setting.
Another way that some professors elude not fully implementing the first amendment in the classroom is by defending themselves against terminologies that they may think do not apply to them such as “religion” and “beliefs” with those they hold onto such as “science” and “tolerance.”
For further clarification and emphasis, a few terms need to be defined. To begin with, according to the Oxford dictionary, religion is “a belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” It is also defined as “a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.”(Oxford dictionary)Furthermore, in his article on the “True Definition of Belief”, Ty Bennet defines belief as an “inward conviction and a feeling of certainty about something.”
Like mentioned before, these professors who violate the first amendment, many of whom are atheist or agnostic, are able to do so without realizing it since their focus is usually on their “disbelief” which separates them from those who do “believe.” But I would like to emphasize, the second part of the definition of religion,“it is a pursuit or interest that someone ascribes supreme importance.” With that it can be
argued that atheism is not just a disbelief, a notion that is over-emphasized and results in the separation that exists, but also it is a belief of its own kind. A belief that a god or gods do not exist and that the material world is all there is. This view of atheism as a belief, brings it down to the same level as all the different kinds of beliefs that exist and that the first amendment applies to.
It should also be noted that secularization and secularism, though different, go hand-in-hand. “Secularization is a process... that gives way to ‘secularism’”(Cline, about.com) - which is an ideology, a philosophy. George Jacob Holyoake, the originator of the term "secularism," defined it most explicitly in his book English Secularism,
“Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three:
1. The improvement of this life by material means.
2. That science is the available Providence of man.
3. That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good." (Holyoake)
Since secularization, through the separation of church and state, led to the exclusion of religion in public life per say, (it did not leave a "vacuum" like it was intended to) “religion” was replaced by secularism . Secularization has fostered a decrease of the influence of religion on the American society, and as the influence of religion declined so did ethics.
What impact does this have within the educational system? C.S. Lewis testifies that “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”(Lewis, The Abolition of Man) The ideal vacuum that was thought to have been created by the exclusion of religion in the public sector has actually been occupied by the subordinate vices: materialism and individualism. Stay tuned...
Here's the next course: Materialism.
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