Assess the view that Britain is a secular society? Secularisation refers to the decline in the importance of religion on society, Bryan Wilson argues that Western societies have been undergoing a long-term process of secularisation. There are many different theories for the view that Britain is a secular society but also does it just represent Christianity or does it refer to all faiths in Britain. In the last 50-60 years Britain has become a multi faith country, with Religions such as Islam and Judaism. Religions such as Islam are on the increase unlike Christianity which is declining at a rapid rate.
The tendency to uphold colonial powers as part of God’s plan has been evident in the missionary agenda. As a matter of fact, it is hard to differentiate the two. This has led to the condemnation of local religion and religious systems in preference for the Christian foreign religion. Ngugi wa Thiongo referred to the missionaries as the “colonial spiritual police” while amplifying on the great connection between colonial imperialism and the missionary enterprise. However, as much as one should not be blind to the mistakes done in the early days of the spread of Christianity in Africa, we must come to terms with both historical facts and other instances that show that Christianity is indeed an African religion.
The falsification principle was originally penned by Karl Popper and was later padded out by Anthony Flew. It is the idea that you cannot convert a religious beliver to not believing with empirical evidence and knowledge because they have a blik, or an unshakeable belief. A blik can occur within a person for many reasons; upbringing or a religious experience are just a couple of reasons. Where the verification principle failed, Popper and Flew stepped in to create a new challenge. Popper wrote the foundation of the principle, but flew went a bit further with it.
“Expressions of secular humanism reject both the minimal Christian elements of its precursors and essential biblical truths, such as the fact that human beings bear the image of their Creator.” (Text Book The popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics) Meaning/ Purpose: Secular humanists never think about God don’t pray, never worry about what God thinks. So they may devote much more time and attention, and their energy to improving themselves, their relationships, and their environment. Morality: “Secular humanists base their morality and ideas about justice on critical intellect unassisted by Scripture, which Christians rely on for knowledge concerning right and wrong, good and evil.” (secularhumanism.org) Destiny: Secular humanists know that the truth of human experience is that certain virtues, practices, and habits of mind and character make for a better life. “It aims to heal this world and glorify man as the author of his own, progressive salvation.”(secularhumanism.org) Contrast: I was not sure if I would like to do this paper since I do not agree with the beliefs of secular humanism. Before I could consider my Christian response to secular humanism, I had to do my research.
Over time, secularism has become a global movement characteristic of a life defined by indifference to or rejection of religion and religious considerations. In other words, a system of doctrines and practices that is concerned with worldly things, as opposed to spiritual things. “Secularism refers to a situation in which religious faith, for one reason or another is felt to be superfluous. It is a state in which religion loses its hold both at the level of social institutions and at the level of human consciousness. Secularism is a worldview which, in theory and/or practice, denies the immanence of God.
But as I read, I realized that our viewpoints are quite different. This guy's a radical. Of course, I'm a conservative, so a whole lot of viewpoints will seem really liberal or radical to me. And neither do I claim to have complete understanding of which viewpoints should be classified under which label. But basically, this guy thinks that public schooling is just wrong by principle.
Islam and Christianity Sub-Saharan Africa North Africa was the epicenter for the spread of Christianity and Islam on the African continent. The people of North Africa, by force, free will, or trade networks, came to accept and disseminate each religion to the masses. Although Christianity and Islam spread equally through Egypt, Nubia, and to the Western areas around Numidia, it is apparent that Islam had a far greater and lasting impact than Christianity. Christianity came to North Africa by way of missionaries to Egypt early in the first century. It is believed that these Christian missionaries came to Alexandria to spread the gospel among the Jewish community.
This is not so in other religions. Such religions as Hinduism for instance do not believe this. For everything you do wrong you will be punished. Christianity is slowly evolving and trying to become even more appealing to society, there are still many downfalls. Todays society is steadly envolving and the views on how the Universe works today is a total different story on how people thought it worked back then.
Due to the controversy that could be caused by this topic sources from patriotic Britons, Muslims and the media will be used to avoid bias and create balanced and well formulated argument. To address the topic, many different aspects of Islam and British tradition will be identified, analysed and compared. History of Islam in Britain. Britain has always been a mostly Christian dominion; however the figures have shown that the numbers of other religions have increased, in particular, Islam. Islam now dominates 2.7% of people’s religious beliefs in Britain (office for national statistics, 2001).
“Self-examination, then, was an essential component of higher education,” (Sharma, 2001). Over time, however, the secularization of schools and changes to the mainstream paradigm of life has largely silenced and even shunned spiritual learning in the American educational system. Daryl Gilley (2005) indicated, “with the exception of adult religious education, spirituality has been given little attention in mainstream academic adult education.” It is obvious that colleges and universities have tried to take the stance of neutrality when it comes to religion, but the unfortunate reality is that over time, higher education has become spiritually silent. Does this spiritual silence come as a detriment to today’s students, faculty, and to the