Why we need a Humanist Reformation

Spiked, March 5, 2008

Dolan Cummings
Our response to religious radicalism should not be to plea for moderation, but rather to inject some real radicalism into politics.

The apparent rise of religion, and the crisis in secular thinking that it implies, has been a recurring theme at discussions held by the Institute of Ideas in recent years. One of the most intriguing aspects of this is the fact that the mantle of ‘radicalism’ seems to have passed from secular politics to religion. This is the focus of the second in a series of three debates on religion and secularism organised by the Institute of Ideas in partnership with the Bishopsgate Institute in London, which takes place tomorrow evening. I’ll be arguing that the best response to religious radicalism is not a plea for moderation, but rather a dose of radical thinking in politics.

Karl Marx famously described religion as ‘the opium of the masses’, something that gave solace to the oppressed and downtrodden, but which offered little in the way of solutions to their problems. Indeed, in modern history religion has generally been a conservative force, reconciling people to the status quo and their place within it, and with a few exceptions religious leaders have either endorsed secular authority, or acted as a pacifying influence on rebellious elements. It is historically unusual, then, that religion today is associated with political radicalism.

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