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Saving Secular Society
Saving Secular Society
Apr 19, 2026 1:31 AM

I used to have more regular and extensive interaction with people whose worldviews were starkly different from my own. That’s not so much the case anymore, so it’s good to be reminded occasionally that some people live in different worlds that are sometimes hard prehend. That happened today when I came across an announcment for a conference, “The Secular Society and Its Enemies.” In the strange universe in which the conference’s organizers live, “The world is finally waking up to the dangers of religious faith,” “The American courts are stacked with judges who openly denigrate the nation’s vital and historic separation of church and state,” and “societies the world over face the ominous threat of de-secularization.”

Not meaning to be too flippant, I concede that the question of the relationship between government and religion is critical, especially in light of the advances of Islam around the world. But the conference description suggests that its agenda will be driven by the silly view that Islamic advocates of sharia and conservative American evangelicals and Pope Benedict XVI all have pretty much the same problem: they’re theocrats.

HT: James Kushiner at Mere Comments

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