Secularism in the USA

[Alex]

Secularism in the USA
Karen Frantz
Communications and Policy Manager, American Humanist Association
3 August 2009, International Humanist News
http://www.iheu.org/secularism-usa

January 20, 2009, was an historic date in the United States. It was momentous for the inauguration of the first black U.S. President, Barack Obama, an event that bookmarked the civil rights movement and ushered in new hope that the U.S. had made enormous progress in soothing long-seated racial tensions.

But Obama’s inauguration also marked another historic first – a first that too took great strides to soothe a long-seated tension. Only this tension wasn’t marked by racial lines, but rather the division between the religious and the non-religious.

The first I’m referring to was the President’s inauguration speech, in which he said:

"We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers." 

It was the first time a U.S. President had acknowledged atheists and agnostics in an inauguration speech, and one of few times a politician had referenced non-theists in an inclusive, positive light. It was an astounding nod to the non-theist community – particularly when you consider that it’s a matter of political capital for U.S. politicians to reference faith and speak about their own devotion, and appearing too friendly with the non-theist community can sometimes be toxic to a politician’s career.

Yet, since his inauguration, President Obama has continued to inclusively mention non-believers in other speeches, such as at a Hispanic Prayer Breakfast. It appears that after a sordid history of being a third rail in U.S. politics, non-believers may now be getting their first seat at the political table.

However, many questions still remain at issue for non- theist Americans. Despite indications that attitudes may be starting to change, why has there been and continues to be so little acceptance of non- theists in general, and how do we change that? Why is it that the United States, which has a strong Constitutional separation of church and state, breeds such fervent religiosity? What is the state of secularism in the U.S.? These are questions Humanists must ask in order to understand how to gain acceptance of ourselves and our philosophy, both in government and in civil society.

Wariness of non-theism in the United States runs deep. In fact, it runs so deep that over half of the population wouldn’t vote for an atheist for President. Far more would vote for a Mormon, even though atheists and agnostics outnumber Mormons by a wide margin. To be exact, the number of non-theists in the U.S. is estimated to be approximately 63 million, or between 9 and 11 percent of the population. That’s compared to the number of Jewish, Mormon, Orthodox, and Muslim adherents combined, who totaled just 8 per cent. The conventional wisdom that believing in god – any god – is better than believing in no god is widely held.

Moreover, religiosity at the expense of secularism is more prevalent in public life in the United States than many other western countries. A 2006 study published in Science magazine showed that only 14 per cent of adults in the U.S. thought that evolution was “definitely true,” compared with Denmark, Sweden, and France, where over 80 per cent of adults accepted the concept of evolution. The only country surveyed that was more likely to reject evolution than the U.S. was Turkey. In addition, a 2005 Financial Times/Harris poll showed that approximately 70 per cent of Americans believe in some kind of supreme being, compared with approximately 60 per cent of Italians, 40 per cent of Germans, and a mere 30 per cent of French. Moreover, church attendance is generally higher in the United States than many Western countries, and more Americans rate faith as being an important part of their life than Western Europeans do...