In contrast to the Abrahamic Big Story there is no personal
Secular god to fear. Yet there
is darkness at the heart of the Secularist vision
in that the Secularist fears his own meaninglessness.
While secular humanists strive to be optimistic,
theirs is a sanguine view drawn against the more
compelling general Secular/Scientism themes of the survival of the
fittest, the battle of tooth and claw,
and the Warrior’s Quest vision of life as a battle against
the odds.
There is no god “out
there,” truly, all that there is, is Earth afloat the eerie
emptiness of outer space. Not only is there no sacred space,
there is “nothing” out there. “Outer” space
is vast, empty and cold. An apt iconic image is that of Edvard Munch's
"Scream."
The specters of the meaninglessness
of life, the futility of human effort in light of
the lesson's history teaches about civilizations rising and falling,
and such anxieties prevent the Secularists from
being peacefully at-home, comfortably on Earth.
Yet, they generally urge support for unifying and gloablizing efforts
such as the United Nations, the World Court, and the Earth
Charter movements. Such institutions are seen as courageous
stands against the chaos which brews under everything
human. Indeed, what gnaws at the heart of
a Secularist is that the future lies in the hands of
his fellow humans, and, as the creation of the Mushroom
Cloud notably indicates, the human Other is not to
be trusted farther than the eye can see.
Continue—Secularism—Identifies
and Names the Other as Intimate Enemy
