Secular Fundamentalism: good intentions with harmful consequences

Somewhere deep in the heart of the average development-oriented NGO worker, lurks a missionizing spirit. A spirit not so far removed from the old missionaries of British colonial times, or of the Christian settlers who preached and converted Indigenous populations in the newly "found" Americas. Somewhere deep inside this charitable, peace-loving soul, lies a reflection of an ugly past - a past paved by good intentions but riddled with skeletons of brutality and cultural dominion.

Today’s missionary is masked behind the cloak of international development, and foreign aid. The goal is no longer conversion to Christianity, but rather embracement of secular democracy. The scripture is no longer the Bible, but rather sacred contemporary scriptures such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The creed is no longer monotheism, but rather atheism in matters of the state. But the message is the same: we have the Truth, and we must bring this Truth to the "less enlightened" corners of the world. Indeed, secularism – in its most fundamentalist interpretations - is the new religion of “missionaries”:,and secular democracy the new creed of colonizers.

Secularism is an ideology which is defined by the absence of theologic principles in its world view. The absence of God in this world view, does not necessarily confer an absence of faith-based assumptions at its core. Even scientifically-based world views, have at their core, basic assumptions which are no more provable than the resurrection of Christ, or the existence of Nirvana.

Take for example the basic scientific principle that one’s senses are accurate measures of the material world around us. Or the precept that time is an actual entity that is linear in nature and measurable. These are amongst the many basic assumptions upon which many scientific theorems are built. However these are assumptions for which there is no method of proof or calculation, and thus they are principles which must be taken on faith. As such, the theorems upon which they are built represent incomplete truths – resting upon a foundation based upon faith itself, rather than upon immutable proofs. Over the centuries, many a scientist, philosopher, and theologian have thus posited that non-theological world views are in fact faith-based “religions” much like the theologically based religions themselves.

One of these core assumptions, the linearity of time, ironically has its origins in early Protestant thought. The conversion of St. Augustine to Christianity brought about a dramatic shift in time-perception within ancient Greece from that of cyclical time, to that of linear time. Embedded within the ideologue of linear time exists the sense that humanity is moving forward in time in a unidirectional fashion, toward some inevitable and desired destination. In this the concept of “development” is intimately intertwined. One who is closer to this ultimate destination is clearly the more developed, and hence a hierarchy of social evolution is established.

At around the same time period as the development of linearity of time in Western thought arose, a second social phenomenon emerged – the rise of capitalism. Max Weber linked the rise of capitalism to of the rise of the Protestant work ethic which embraces self-discipline in work, but which denounces participation in worldly materialistic pleasures. This situation ultimately results in the generation of sizeable income, with no socially-sanctioned manner in which to spend one’s earning. The logical outcome of this is re-investment of the profits into one’s own business, thus giving birth to an infantile form of modern-day capitalism.

While the concepts of God and Christianity have now been disengaged from secural western thought, the concepts of capitalism and linear social development continue to be revered as sacred chalices from which all human happiness must surface. Indeed the generation of capital has in turn itself evolved into a goal, perhaps even the ultimate destination along the linear continuum of time on which we believe we are traveling.

Thus we come to modern secularism. A world view whose foundations are rooted on faith-based principles (for as discussed above, even science at it’s core rests on faith), which believes in linear social evolution, which has an ultimate stated destination, and which has non-theological scriptures codifying its values and creeds which are believed to contain absolute Truths and “Rights” applicable universally to all people. Indeed secularism could be poised to be one of the most tolerant, and respectful of all world views, would it have the wisdom to avoid the errors of the religious groups that came before it. Unfortunately, fundamentalist interpretations of secularism are becoming increasingly mainstream, and as such secularism seems to be slated to walk down the same ill-fated paths of religious eras gone-by.

Currently, we are entrenched in a war that claims to have been waged in the name of secular government, free capital markets, and in the name of liberation from the clutches of religious fundamentalism. It is being waged in the name of the human rights, which are codified in sacred documents revered by secularists. The name of economic and social development has also raised its head. US leaders have stated explicitly that this is not a religious war. I would argue that it is a war between two opposing fundamentalist world-views: the religious fundamentalists of the Islamic world, and the secular fundamentalists of the Western world. The ultimate goal being the replacement of a theology-based society with a secular society – a society which will hold sacred all of the ideals, values, and customs considered palatable to most western secularists. Thus success would result in the propogation of one world view, and the diminution of another.

Currently, there are thousands of international development organizations working in countries around the world. The stated goal is to enhance individual liberties, improve capital potential, and enhance material well-being. The goals of the agencies are intimately intertwined with a secular values and are tolerant of local customs insofar as they do not contravene codes of conduct set out in secular scriptures. When such contravening customs are noted, the aid immediately becomes contingent upon altering local beliefs and practices to be more in alignment with secularism.

Take as an example practices such as child labour, or female genital mutilation – both are clearly practices which contravene sacred secular beliefs in universal human rights, and both are amongst practices which are likely to be linked to the cessation of aid should governmental efforts to quell these practices not be made. Thus a value-judgement is made upon the validity of one world view versus another. Practices which honour tradition are dismissed as based in superstition. Secularist belief in the linearity of time renders one to believe beyond a doubt that customs based in ancient tradition and theology are socially lower along the development spectrum, and that one must strive to move forward along the continuum of social evolution towards non-theologically based practices. Assisting another community through this process is, with few exceptions, considered a noble act by most securalists.

Coming from a feminist western secularist school of thought myself, child labour, FGM, child marriage, wife-burning, etc. don’t sit very well with me personally. Similarly, to a strict muslim the concept of women having unlimited sexual freedoms, and dressing in revealing manners must not sit well with them either. A similar reaction could be expected of a strict Catholic, at the thought of legalized abortion.

However, the key difference between a fundamentalist, and a moderate is the belief in relative realities. The ability to see the grey spaces. The ability to be passionately self-critical about the validity of one’s own beliefs before setting the microscope upon the beliefs of another. In practical terms it means recognizing that the gold-standard of ethical human behaviour is not found in any one world view, and that human truths are relative rather than absolute and immutable.

The coercive application of one faith-based non-theological world view, over another theology-based world view is unfortunately a practice which is becoming more readily accepted by mainstream western secular societies. The belief that we are further along the social development spectrum, closer to the ultimate goals of human development, and that we ought to share our evolved understanding of the world with others who remain entrenched in tradition and religion are explicitly and implicitly ingrained into secular thought in the western world. Unfortunately however, these beliefs and assumptions are mired with the same fundamentalist ingredients that were present in the colonialists and Christian missionaries of the past - and these are the same beliefs which in the past contributed to centuries of oppression and slavery.

Though well-intentioned, our international development efforts will continue to carry forward the seeds of colonialism and cultural dominion until we are able to separate ourselves from these fundamentalist mantras which cloud our secular framework. Until that time, we cannot remain confident that history will not look back at us, and marvel at the stains of bloody oppression on our hands.