The role of Secularism in the formation of modern ethical values...

[Humanist_Activist]

The strength of secular ethics is this, it is subjective, rather than objective, the key factor is that as we increase knowledge, we increase our ethical outlook in society. I think no one would argue that we live, particularly in western culture, in a time of the least amount of suffering and unethical behavior. But why is this?

I would argue that the Age of Enlightenment was the largest factor in the progression of ethical values to today and into the future, it never really ended, but sometimes it sputtered and restarted, but overall we have had a progression in the advancement of progressive ethical values. At the same time, the role of religion in informing ethics in culture has decreased slowly but surely. The problem is that religions, while they do codify many values that many religious people considered ethical or moral, those values then become unchanging due to the nature of it being "God's Law".

The advancement in ethics are rooted in the Enlightenment, and in scientific advancement, the theory of Evolution itself, Darwin's brainchild, partially came about because he came from a strongly abolitionist family and believed that the races were inconsequential variations of the same species, not different species as some of his contemporaries argued as a justification for slavery, which itself was justified by Christian ethical values rooted in the Bible.

This is one of the key factors, while religions such as Christianity have the Golden Rule, in practice they generally only apply that rule within their perceived in-group. Christianity has been in force for 1500 years, yet the ethical outlook of nations with Christian majorities hasn't advanced much till approximately 200 years ago. This is a key point, and as Christianity fell away as a force for ethical consideration, these nations advanced their ethics accordingly. Is it any surprise then that the least religious nations in the world also have the best happiness and civil rights records?

Based on reason and evidence based guidance, we can evolve as a society to treat all members of that society equally. Its a slow road, but one that we are progressing on, even in the most religious of secular societies such as the United States.

Compare and contrast religious ethics and society with secular ones, its easy to do, even today, there are still nations that are practical or literal theocracies, so which is better at determining what is ethical? Iran stones adulterers and hangs gay people, following the precepts of the Qur'an which isn't that far removed from the Bible, Uganda imprisons gay people following precepts of the Bible, Pakistan puts blasphemers to death or imprisons them for life for disrespecting Mohammed.

Contrast this with nations such as those of Europe and North America, some of the most secular, where none of these are crimes at all, and indeed where same sex marriage, no-fault divorce, freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Which is superior?

And while religion is good at passing on ethics from one generation to the next, what if those ethics are wrong, such as promotion and acceptance of slavery? For thousands of years, humans have owned other humans, and even today that is true, but today it is considered anathema in most societies around the world, and modern day slavers are generally treated like the criminals they are. Genocide is another, once acceptable practice, and now we have an international criminal court that treats those who commit it as the war criminals they are.

The biggest strength of secular based ethics, however, is this, it doesn't matter what your religion or lack thereof is, you most likely follow secular based ethics and ignore or gloss over your religion's(if any) ethics. The only exception would be the extremists, who are viewed this way because they are the unfiltered followers of their religion's ethical as well as metaphysical outlook, and the fact is they cannot be faulted for not following their faith, they are following it to their fullest as practical.