In today’s The Guardian, Nicholas Buxton, a priest in training, has tried to turn the coin of secularism and religion upside-down and puts forward the tired old story that being secular is dogmatic.

*sigh*

Instead of deconstructing his opinion piece, I’ll simply post the comment I submitted to The Guardian’s web site.

Buxton wrote: I am puzzled when people dismiss religion, yet blithely disavow the implicit faith commitments and foundational axioms of their own position.

So what exactly are the implicit faith commitments and foundational axioms of, for example, a secular atheistic world view?

That there is are no gods? Nope, this is a conclusion based on analysing the claims made by those already under the spell of dogma. Without such claims, there wouldn’t be any need for a definition of atheism. Putting the cart before the horse is ridiculous if there is no cart.

That evolution is a fact? Again no, this is backed up by enough scientific evidence that it would, if presented to you all at once, make your head spin. Unless, of course, you’ve already decided to assume that the evidence is bogus.

Merely redefining terms to suit your argument is as old, pathetic and false as it ever was. True free-thinkers don’t have dogma telling them what they are supposed to think, and to say that your religion equates to free-thought is disingenuous at best, and a blatent lie at worst.

I’m grateful of your decision to enter the clergy — it suits your presuppositions and propensity to twist and turn evidence to support your own preconceived notions rather than looking at it objectively and coming to a realistic conclusion. I can’t think of any other careers that would see this way of thinking as a virtue, except, perhaps, politics. At least in the priesthood you won’t have as much opportunity to limit my freedom from the dogma espoused by your religion.

In the same issue, British philosopher Julian Baggini has a piece entitled This is what the clash of civilisations is really about.

This entry was posted Saturday, April 14th, 2007 at 2:17 pm and is filed under . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.