Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda
Paul Kurtz
2010
http://www.amazon.com/Multi-Secularism-New-Agenda-Paul-Kurtz/dp/1412814197Product Description
Secularists maintain that the state should not impose a religious creed on its citizens and that it should respect freedom of conscience, the right to believe or disbelieve in the prevailing orthodoxy. This right is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Rights of Man enunciated in the French Revolution. Many powerful religious institutions including Islam, Hinduism, Protestant Fundamentalism, conservative Roman Catholicism or Orthodox Judaism, and others do not accept this principle. And
many totalitarian countries that claim to be secular nevertheless seek to impose a kind of doctrinaire ideological uniformity, often equivalent to a religious creed.
Kurtz is perhaps best known for his Humanist Manifesto II. Here he takes it to a new level, arguing that secularism today needs to be allied to the emergence of democratic institutions that respect individual freedom and the pluralistic society. He argues that a defense of
secularism entails a defense of the civic virtues of democracy, which include the toleration of dissent and alternative lifestyles and the willingness to negotiate differences. Naturally how this develops is relative to the socio-cultural context in which it emerges.
Consequently, secularism will take different forms in different societies, and the term multi-secularism best describes that.
Many people believe that it is impossible to maintain a moral order without the support of religion. Kurtz vigorously denies that, and this volume attempts to explicate the values and principles of
secular morality, which he sees as the cornerstone of the open democratic society.
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