What is secularism – and why does it matter?

We live in a diverse society. Walk down any street in any British city and you’ll encounter people with different backgrounds, different religions or beliefs, and different answers to life’s deepest questions. 

That diversity is something to celebrate, but in relation to religion or belief, it can raise practical challenges when it comes to society and politics. Who should the government listen to and why? How do we come well together in spite of our differences? How do we build a society that works for everyone, regardless of what they believe?

For many people, the answer is secularism. It’s a word that gets used a lot but which is still very misunderstood. So what does it actually mean?

Secularism isn’t what you might think

One of the most common misconceptions is that secularism is itself a worldview. Opponents of secularism try often to equate it with atheism or claim that seeks to marginalise or suppress religion. 

In fact, the opposite is true. First of all, secularism isn’t a set of beliefs about the universe like a religion or a non-religious worldview. Secularism is a practical framework for organising society that can be shared by people of any religion or none.

Secularism has three core aspects:

• Separation of religious and state institutions. When religion and state become entangled, the consequences can be serious: citizens who don’t belong to the official religion can feel like second-class members of their own society.

• Freedom of thought, conscience, and belief. Everyone should have as much freedom as possible to follow their own path, within the limits set by others’ rights and freedoms.

• Equal treatment for all. No one’s opportunities in life should be restricted by what they believe, or by the fact that they’ve walked away from one tradition or another.

Arguments for a secular society

Why should we want a secular state? The case rests on three interconnected principles: freedom, fairness, and peace.

The argument for freedom was made by thinkers like John Stuart Mill who argued that human beings flourish when they are free to pursue their own goals and ideas. A secular state – one that doesn’t try to dictate what you should believe or how you should live – is the best guarantee of that freedom. Only when the state remains impartial can people truly determine their own lives.

The argument for fairness is simpler: equal treatment is in everyone’s interest. In a diverse society, no worldview should hold a privileged position, and no one should be able to use state power to advance their beliefs at others’ expense. When it comes to religion and the state, secularism is simply the most equal approach.

The argument for peace is perhaps the most urgent. History offers a sobering lesson. When states adopt official religions, when religious authority and political power become fused, the result too often is persecution, discord, resentment, community tensions, and violence. Secularism offers a different path: a state that mediates diversity, that creates a fair and open society for all groups, so that no one is pushed to the margins, no one feels so alienated that conflict becomes the only outlet.

Our new animation, What is secularism? explores these ideas in accessible terms: secularism is about freedom, fairness, and peace.

Not just for humanists

It would be easy to assume that secularism is just a humanist project, but it very much isn’t. While all humanists are secularists to some extent, secularism has some deep roots in religious thought as well.

Support for secularism is given historically and today by many Protestant denominations in Europe and America who believe that an individual’s conscience is a matter between them and god, not something for the state to control. The Hindu Gandhi was a committed secularist, not for humanist reasons but for religious ones: he believed that spiritual paths were personal, and the state had no business interfering in them. Arguments for secularism can be found in every major religious tradition, from Islam and Judaism to Hinduism and Buddhism.

Many prominent advocates of secularism have been devoutly religious. Historical figures include the Indian Buddhist B.R. Ambedkar, the Egyptian Islamic scholar Ali Abd al-Razig, and the American Christian civil rights activist Martin Luther King. Even the Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu argued for a secular state as the antidote to sectarian conflict in South Africa, insisting that ‘God is not a Christian.’ In America, the principle has been embraced by presidents across the political spectrum, from John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter to Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. 

Secularism, in other words, belongs to everyone. It’s a framework that allows people of all worldviews to participate in public life on equal terms. As the new animation puts it, it’s about making sure that no worldview holds a privileged position, and that everyone has a voice.

Where are we now?

Secularism had its great moment of global optimism in the mid-twentieth century. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, enshrined freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as universal values. The United States and France stood as prominent examples of secular democracies. The founders of newly independent India saw secularism as an essential feature of a modern state.

The picture today is more complicated. In parts of the world, religious nationalism is on the rise. In the Arab world, in Russia, in Turkey, governments have moved away from secular principles and towards religiously inflected governance. The backlash against universal human rights is real and growing.

And yet, the case for secularism is being made – often bravely – in every region of the world. Dissident groups in the Arab world, human rights activists in Russia and across Africa, civil society organisations in almost every country are working, under difficult conditions, to secure equal rights and open societies. Humanists everywhere are allies and active participants in that struggle.

A resource for everyone

Our new animation What is secularism? was created as part of Understanding Humanism, our charitable programme supporting teaching and learning about humanism in schools. Made for Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils, it’s designed to be a springboard for classroom conversation, but its clarity makes it valuable for anyone who wants to think through what secularism really means.

Director of Understanding Humanism Luke Donnellan hopes the film will help people ‘understand how secularism protects freedom of belief for everyone, and how it enables people with different worldviews to live well together.’

In a world that feels increasingly fractured along lines of belief and identity, that message feels more relevant than ever. Secularism doesn’t ask us to abandon what we believe. It asks us to build a society where everyone’s beliefs and everyone’s freedom are equally respected.Watch What is secularism? on the Understanding Humanism website, alongside a wider set of classroom resources and activities.