Lesson video

Hello there, my young philosophers and theologians.

My name is Ms. Marx and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be doing about secularism and whether this is a desirable way of life or not, and thinking about, in a society that has secularist principles, does that mean that there's less religion or maybe there's space for more religion and a wider variety of religion?

This is all part of our thinking around identity and religion and belief and where we are now and what the future might hold.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to define secularism and describe advantages and disadvantages of secularism.

So let's start with some key terms.

Atheist: someone who does not believe in God or any gods.

Freedom of religion: the right to practice a religion, change religion or have no religion without interference.

Pluralism: the belief that many different religions, beliefs, and ways of life can coexist equally in one society.

Secularism: the principle that religion and belief should not influence how society or government is run.

So watch out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have three sections: understanding secularism, possible advantages of secularism, and possible limitations of secularism.

So let's start with our first section, understanding secularism.

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson, once president of the United States, wrote a letter to a group of Christians called the Danbury Baptists.

And in the letter it said, "Religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God.

Our government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.

" Why do you think he wrote this in his letters that he's writing to a group of Christians and he's saying there's gonna be a separation between Church and State?

Why did he write that?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

This is a founding key principle within the Constitution of the United States of America, isn't it?

This idea of a separation between Church and State.

But I wonder why he wrote this to a group of Christians.

The letter was written in the early years after the USA gained independence and some religious minorities like those Baptist Christians that he was writing to, feared that the new government would impose restrictions on religion.

But he wanted to reassure them that they weren't gonna have restrictions put on them, but that he believed that people should have freedom of religion, the government cannot impose a religion on people, and the government cannot control a religion.

So whilst they are religious, he's trying to reassure them the government will have this separation so that it allows for religious freedom.

So the separation of Church and State, meaning that the state's not gonna control or decide what religions people have to have, people can choose it for themselves.

And he's saying this to a group of Christians who are part of, not the kind of established Church.

This was an important moment in the development of secularism.

So sometimes there's this misconception that secularism is about not being religious or not having religion because that term "secular" means not religious, but it's roots really are in this idea of there being religious freedom.

Some people would argue, if you could look at this, he was writing to Christians to reassure them there would be this separation to allow them their religious freedom.

Let's unpack this word "secularism" a little bit more and it comes from Latin.

I've just mentioned that it's got that bit at the beginning, "secular.

" So secular meaning kind of "of this world," physical, what we can see and touch and know of this world rather than something beyond or beyond the material or the afterlife, those kind of things.

So it's to do with here and now.

This world is secular.

And ism is a suffix, which means a belief or a cultural political idea or doctrine.

So you can see why people might think it's to do with taking religion away, can't you?

But that's a misconception because really it's to do with having that separation which can allow people to be religious or not.

It's up to them.

So secularism is the idea that religion and belief should not influence how society or a government is run.

So it shouldn't be that a government is one particular religion or kind of imposing that one religion on the people or imposing that everyone must be religious, for example.

Other examples of secularism could include: religious symbols being restricted in government funded buildings.

So if it's a government office or a town hall for example, not having religious symbols there.

There's officially no state religion.

So in the UK we have got, in England we have got the Church of England as the established church, the established religion.

But in a secular society, you wouldn't have an official state religion so that people could choose whichever one they wanted.

No involvement of religious institutions in education.

So they are not teaching children to be that particular religion within those state schools.

Any religion is permitted within the idea of secularism.

So it's not the idea of banning religion and saying, "We're an atheist country now.

" Any religion is permitted.

No government funding for religious activities.

So no sort of special treatment for religious groups over non-religious groups or particular religious groups.

And the monarch or ruler doesn't have to follow a certain religion.

So if the king decides to convert to another religion, that would be fine under a secularist society.

So we can perhaps think of different countries you might be aware of, you might live in or you might have visited, to see how far along kind of that line of secularism would you put them.

Let's look at a case study of France.

France is seen as a country that really has kind of gone with this idea of secularism.

It's one of the founding sort of core principles that we have within France.

A bit like we saw with the USA declaration there, the idea of separation of Church and State.

Let's have a look at France, a case study.

So in 1905 the French Republic brought in laws supporting Laicite.

Now this is strict secularism in public life.

So this is important that it's to do with public life.

This isn't about private, in your home with your families, what you choose to do on a Sunday.

This isn't about monitoring or controlling people's private lives.

This is what is done in public life.

So it included ending state funding of any religious activity.

Religious groups want to do something, great, then they find their own funding for it.

They're not gonna have a pot of money from the government, supporting one group and not another of a particular religion.

Strict religious neutrality in government buildings, especially schools.

So neutrality in that not one particular religion or no religion or being religious is kind of seen as more important or significant than another.

And the way that's been interpreted, we can unpack it a little bit in a moment.

And then thirdly, regulations around religious expression in public spaces.

So again, we can think about this in a moment to do with what does it mean to express your religion publicly and should that be restricted in some way in a secular society?

Now, here we've got mentioned schools.

You may be sat in a school now.

We've mentioned this earlier as well.

Why might there be a link between schools and secularism?

Have a think about why there could be a link between these sort of societies that say they've got secularist principles and why that means they might have laws to do with what happens in a school.

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, often in society, schools are state funded or the, you know, the government is running them, maybe hiring the teachers, training the teachers.

If then the schools are imposing a certain religion on those students or a way of talking about religion, does that then mean that the secular principles are being undermined slightly of one religious group or one religious idea or saying you shouldn't be religious is promoted over another?

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Secularism means that a country doesn't allow any religions in it.

Is that true or false?

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That's false, isn't it?

I said that's a real misconception that people might have a about secularism.

Why?

Well, secularism is a separation of the state and religion, where people are free to practice and believe whatever religion they want to in their own private lives.

So some might argue it gives more religious freedom because people can choose between religions, they don't have to have like the state's religion.

Well done.

So we've mentioned the USA and France as examples.

Now let's turn to the UK and think about has the UK adopted these principles of secularism or not?

So there are many aspects that it has adopted.

For example: People have freedom to change religion or have no religion at all.

There is religious pluralism.

People can be whatever religion they want.

They can convert without different problems.

You know, they've got the freedom and it'll be protected.

They have that right to change religion.

There's not, you don't have to be the state religion because we have one.

Laws have been brought in which established religion may oppose.

So even if we have got, say, for example in the House of Lords, there are bishops from the Church of England who have reserved spots there, still they haven't prevented laws coming in that they might not agree with.

So we can't really argue that they've got like a control over the law just because they're sat in the House of Lords, can we?

Because that shows a kind of healthy democracy.

People might argue that things have come in, even despite religious groups maybe not necessarily agreeing with them.

Also we have the Equality Act of 2010 showing us that discrimination on religious grounds is illegal.

So we have those religious freedoms, and people can use that Equality Act to go to court and protect their religious freedoms, showing that we have that principle of secularism of religious freedom.

And also the monarch is the head of the established religion.

Yes, we've mentioned that, but it's only really symbolically.

Like whoever the monarch is doesn't have much of a say at all over what happens in the country or whether people have to be a certain religion or not.

So it's just symbolic rather than in practice, the monarch having kind of control over the state because the monarch is the head of the State and the Church.

However, on the other side, it can't really be said that England has adopted secularism fully.

So I've just kind of about hinted at that by saying some of the people in the House of Lords are Church of England bishops 'cause it's the established Church and also the monarch is the head of State and Church.

So can we say it's adopted it fully?

Well, coronations, remembrance services and state funerals are Christian services with Christian prayers and Christian actions that happen within them.

There's an established Church of England and prayers are said from that particular tradition in Parliament.

So not even just general Christian prayers, it's Anglican prayers that are said within Parliament.

Schools are expected to do daily acts of worship that are broadly Christian.

So this is put into law currently that schools are expected to do this, whether they do or they don't, but they are expected to do that and that's not something you would see within like a fully secularist society like France, for example.

And as I've mentioned before, there are 26 Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords by right, not by merit.

So they're not like brought in because of actions that they've done.

They may be wonderful, amazing people, obviously, to become bishops, but they have seats kind of reserved there for them as bishops of the Church of England.

So some people have argued to say, well, why has one religion got that?

Or one denomination, one group, you know, one type of Christianity got that, whereas others don't?

Does that show some kind of favor for a particular religious group that wouldn't follow fully the principle of secularism, would it?

Now, right now you may be sat in religious education classroom and you've got me as a religious education teacher.

If you were a French student in a French school, you wouldn't have a subject like that.

They don't have religious education.

Because of this principle of Laicite or kind of secularism, their interpretation of that is that schools do not discuss religion or do not educate children about religion.

That is a private matter.

It's not something that happens within a school in case one gets favored over another.

So what do you think might happen if a French student comes over and experiences a religious education lesson then for the first time?

Well, let's see what happens here with Louis and Jacob.

Louis is coming to stay with Jacob because he's doing a French exchange and he's staying with him in his first ever religious education lesson.

And he says, "It's amazing to me that you learn about all these religions in school.

We don't have that in France in the same way.

Really, it's a private thing we talk about at home.

" And Jacob says, "Sometimes people think RE is about telling us to be a certain religion, but it isn't that at all.

It's a way to learn about different religions of the world.

I can't believe you don't have that.

" Do you think a secular state should have RE lessons in schools?

So we've got these two examples here where Louis doesn't have RE lessons and Jacob does.

Do you think that a secular state could have space for RE lessons?

What do you think?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

I guess you could argue it depends on the type of religious education that's happening, doesn't it?

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Is this true or false?

In England, the head of the established Church is also the head of state.

Is that true or false?

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That is true.

So from our learning so far, do you think England and France are religious or secular states?

So we've got a continuum here from like a religious state to a secular state.

Where do you think France is and where do you think England is on the continuum?

If you're in a classroom, you might stand in a line and stand where you think those two countries are.

If you're writing on paper, you can just draw a line and mark it as well.

So where do you think France is on that continuum and where do you think England is?

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Your response might look something like this.

England is a secular state to a certain extent because the head of state is also the head of the established religion, it's not fully secular.

So I've put it here at about six.

You might put it somewhere different for different reasons, but that's where I've put it.

And secondly, I wonder where you've put France?

A bit further down maybe.

France is a secular state to a great extent as the principle of Laicite means there's a complete separation of religion and government.

Now you might not have put it at 10, you might have put it at nine, but I hope that you've put England at one point and France perhaps slightly further over.

Well done.

So onto our second section then, possible advantages of secularism.

For many people, they would see there being advantages of secularism and it's not only just for secular people.

Also we've got it for religious people, haven't we?

One advantage of secularism as it can be said to support Article 18 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

So number 18 states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom.

" So here we have this idea that someone can choose and change if they want to.

So secularism can support that because no one religion or not is favored over another within a secular state.

So how could secularism be seen to support freedom of religion then?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's unpack that a bit more now.

So Neil is a humanist and a supporter of secularism and he says, "People think sometimes that secularism is against religion, but I don't think it is.

Secularism allows for true freedom of religion as people can choose for themselves what religion, if any, they want to follow.

It allows for religious minorities, non-religious worldviews and other philosophies to flourish without state interference, as a pluralistic society.

" So why might someone who's an atheist like Neil support secularism then?

Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

In some states, one particular religion or one particular version of religion can have power and control.

And sometimes that's known as a theocracy.

And sometimes people who are atheist or apostates who leave a religion are persecuted and discriminated against.

And so if there is secularism, then people can choose whichever religion, or none, that they want to be, which is why many atheists might support secularism.

So whilst we've seen that England is sort of nominally a Christian country, people can practice any religion in England.

Paul and Sarah are both religious people who've exercised that freedom to change their religion whilst living in the UK.

Paul says, "I learned about Zen Buddhism whilst at university and I've adopted many of its practices.

I'm so glad it isn't banned in the UK.

" You can practice Zen Buddhism, even if, you know, the country is a Christian country.

You can practice any religion you like.

And Paul has decided to follow Zen Buddhism.

And Sarah says, "I reverted to Islam as an adult.

It's my personal journey and I'm happy there's no government restrictions on this where we live.

" So Sarah could revert and become a Muslim without facing any different repercussions or any problems she might have faced that could have happened in other countries where there isn't religious freedom and people aren't able to choose to revert or convert into different religions.

How does this example from Paul and Sarah then show that there is a level of secularism in the UK then?

Pause the video and have a think.

And you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, with a secularist state, if we have got some aspects of secularism, it means people can choose which religion or any that they want to follow and they can make changes as well.

They've got that freedom of choice of their religion and conscience.

So let's do a quick check before we move on.

Is this true or false?

Secularism is only supported by atheists.

Is that true or false?

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done, that's false, isn't it?

But why?

Well, it's false because many people who support secularism may be atheist, but many religious and agnostic people support secularism too.

Well done.

So let's look at another case study.

Mona is a Baha'i and she lives in the UK.

Mona says, "In the UK, because of the principle of secularism and religious pluralism, I have the freedom to be a Baja'i.

My faith is not allowed in countries like Iran where there's no separation of religion and government.

Many Baha'is face persecution in Iran, but in the UK we have freedom of religion because of the principles of secularism that have been adopted here.

" Mona is free to practice her religion here and she doesn't face persecution and discrimination because of it, showing that principle of secularism is supporting her.

Why might she support secularism then?

Pause the video and have a think.

You could to talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

A second example then is Richard, who's a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, and he says, "My religion is Christianity and many people who are Seventh Day Adventists like me face persecution in other countries that do not have a separation of government and religion.

In Eritrea there are only certain government sanctioned religions and denominations allowed and I wouldn't be allowed to practice my religion there as I want.

" So here, secularism can not only support different religious groups, but different understandings of those religions, different denominations, different interpretations of those religions as well.

Why might Richard support secularism then?

Pause the video again and talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well done.

Some good ideas there.

So we've seen that there are many possible advantages to secularism.

Let's together give one possible advantage of secularism.

Hmm.

Hmm.

It allows people to change religion, they can change freely and choose which religion they want to follow.

So over to you then.

Give another possible advantage of secularism.

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, I've got here that it treats all religions equally.

Well done.

So now let's do another task to see what we've learned.

You're going to prepare notes for an "agree" side of a debate on the following statement.

You might wanna write it down on paper or note cards to be ready to debate with others.

So we're gonna do the agree side now.

"Secularism has more advantages than limitations.

" So from all the things in this learning cycle, the different advantages that there is, what could you write to agree with this statement?

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, there are lots of things you could have put down there, aren't there?

You may have included the following.

Secularism can allow more religious freedom.

Secularism can allow people to change religions.

Secularism can allow people to be atheist and not any religion.

It can allow religious minorities to exist without persecution.

Secularism can allow all religions to be treated equally.

Well done.

So onto our third and final section then, potential limitations of secularism.

So Louis and Jacob are French exchange students.

Louis has stayed with Jacob and now Jacob's gone to stay with Louis and he's gonna notice some things about life in France.

Remember we had France as an example of a country that has very sort of strong secularist ideas, their principle of Laicite.

So Jacob is staying with Louis's family now and he notices something about the school he goes to.

"I haven't seen any skullcaps, cross necklaces or head scarfs being worn in your school, Louis.

Is that because no one follows those religions?

" I wonder if you can think of what Louis's gonna say back.

He says, "They might follow those religions, but they're not allowed to wear any religious symbols to school as it's a public building and we have a total separation of religion and the state.

" So whereas Jacob might have had someone in school with him who wears a headscarf, for example, Louis will not have that in his school in France.

What do you think?

Do you think religious symbols should be allowed to be worn in state funded schools?

So these are funded sort of by the government.

Do you think religious symbols should be allowed to be worn by students, teachers, people who work there?

Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, a potential limitation of secularism could be it conflicts with the human right to public worship and observance of a religion which is also part of articulating.

So we looked at this article earlier from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, that you have the right to freedom of choice and conscience and thought and religion.

So you can think what you want, you can believe what you want.

Secularism seems to support that, doesn't it?

But also Article 18 says that "everyone has the right, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest your religion or belief in teachings, practice, worship and observance.

" So I've got the right to believe what I want to, but also to follow and practice that belief or that faith or that religion in the way that I want to.

And if that means wearing a cross or a hijab, a headscarf or a skull cap or a turban or an item of clothing, then maybe that's part of my observance and I should have that right too.

How could secularism be seen to go against this right then?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Which article of the human rights declaration states that humans have freedom of religion in both private and public?

Which of these was it?

1, 8, 10 or 18?

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, it was Article 18.

So for some religious people, religious observance and worship includes sharing their religion in very public ways.

So yes, we have that kind of private sense of what religion is, but for some people, the public side of it is important too.

Here we got Drew, who's part of a denomination called the Jehovah's Witnesses, and he says, "I see telling others the good news about Jesus as an important part of my religious expression.

And I would not like to live somewhere where this is limited or forbidden in public places.

" Why might secularism discourage public preaching then?

Why might they not, in a secularist society, want people preaching about religion on the streets?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

This may be because it's seen as a purely private thing and not to be done in public spaces.

And so the idea of it being a religiously neutral space is that it's not done where someone's walking along, they have to hear about a particular religion or a particular viewpoint, but it's seen as a private matter rather than public.

For some religious communities, their places of worship announce the times of meetings in a public way.

So not only is someone like speaking and talking about it, but the way that it's kind of gathering people together to come and pray.

Mustafa will explain.

He says, "I live in Birmingham and you can hear church bells ringing to welcome people to services, and the Adhan or the call to prayer from my local mosque too.

I love living where we can express our religions like this together.

I wouldn't want to live in countries where this preparation for worship could be banned.

" So Mustafa might go along to the mosque to pray, but he also likes hearing the church bells ring too.

Sort of reminds him of that kind of religious pluralism he has around him.

And maybe in some places that follow like very strict secularist principles may not allow these bells and amplification to happen.

Why not?

Pause the video and have a think.

And you could talk to a person next to you or talk to me Again, it might be seen as religion being favored, particularly if one group is allowed to and another group isn't, you know, have noise in the public space.

Whereas perhaps it's seen as something that should be purely private and it should be religiously neutral in the public spaces.

And some people may not like the emphasis on Christianity to be lost from schools in England.

So the idea that the schools should be doing broadly Christian worship and should teaching about Christianity, some people think that's a very important part of what it is to be in school in England.

And here's Ria who's going to explain to us.

Ria, who's Sikhi, she says, "I really like the way my son's school teaches him Christian morals and values through things like assemblies and the Nativity play he takes part in.

We're a Sikh family and share many of the same values of care for vulnerable people in society, like those experiencing poverty, and that is a key Christian value too.

" So even though Ria's not Christian, she likes the fact that there's this kind of emphasis on different Christian teachings her son gets in school.

Why might secularism discourage schools from having Nativity plays?

Pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, a nativity play is based on the story of the Nativity of Jesus being born, and within Christianity it's a very important story that he was born as God's son on Earth and then Christmas is celebrated around that story as well.

And you've got lots of important Christian teaching.

So it's a very Christian story, the Nativity play, based on what happened in the Bible.

So you wouldn't have that necessarily in a secular state in schools.

In the churches, in church youth groups, fine, but not in a school that's supposed to be religiously neutral.

There'll be other things that happen that aren't specifically religious from a particular religion.

So we can see that there can be potential limitations of secularism.

Let's together give one possible limitation of secularism.

Hmm.

I think it could prevent public expression of religion.

If it's taken to like an extreme, it could say no one can ever express publicly what their religious beliefs are.

When actually, that's quite an important part of religion for some people, isn't it?

So over to you then.

Give another potential limitation of secularism.

Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you come up with in a moment.

Well done, I've got here that it could remove religious character from state funded schools.

Well done.

So let's do another practice task to see what we've learned.

You're going to now prepare notes for the "against" side of a debate with the statement below.

"Secularism has more advantages than limitations.

" You can write them down, have note cards, and be ready to debate them with other people.

So earlier we did the "for" side.

Now you're doing the "against" side.

Then you'll have two sets of points, won't you?

Some for and some against.

And you can have the debate with others, or you could write a response showing both sides of the argument.

And just decide after the debate or after you've written it, which side do you think is stronger?

And write a sentence showing this.

So pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some of your points could be: Secularism could limit people's freedom to express their religion in public spaces.

Secularism could limit the cultural expressions of religion in a country.

Secularism could limit expressions of religion in schools.

Secularism could limit the teaching of religion in schools.

And secularism could be misused some as a principle to outlaw religion if it's misunderstood.

And your evaluation may be similar to these points.

So if you were thinking the agree side is stronger, you might have said: The agree side is stronger because if a state controls religion, then it can abuse this to persecute religious minorities or groups which challenge it.

This danger outweighs the limitations of secularism.

Or you might have said the disagree side is stronger because if there's extreme secularism, then it can push religion into the more private space and separate communities more than bringing them together.

And I wonder which side you landed on with that debate.

So let's summarize everything we've learned today.

Secularism: a desirable way of life?

Secularism means that religion should not influence government or laws.

Secularism can protect freedom of religion, belief and non-belief.

Secularism can promote equality and pluralism in society and help protect religious minorities from persecution.

Secularism can also limit public expressions of religion, eg.

symbols or worship.

And countries apply secularism differently, eg, between France and England, as we saw.

So well done for your hard work today and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye!

.