Talk:Secular (disambiguation)
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Untitled
[edit]"; in addition, secularism also includes the priority of the civil laws over any religious legislation. Nowadays, all major religions accept this, except for significant schools in Islam (which proclaim just the opposite)."
Is this accurate and NPOV?--Fangz 02:35, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Why does this page redirect to a page that is NOT the present day meaning of the word - and why must we type in a French word (laicite?) to find the article on secular? --JimWae 06:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
Meaning of the word
[edit]In 2006, although this word has several meanings, by far the most common meaning is "not specifically religious." That being the case, the redirect to secularism was inappropriate for at least two reasons:
1. Secularism, to the extent that it is a valid concept, is an ideological point of view, whereas the word "secular" implies a simple fact that generally has nothing to do with any ideology. Most businesses and corporations, for instance, are secular organizations (i.e. not church-affiliated), but that does not mean that they hold to an anticlerical ideology.
2. "Secularism" is a word that is not very frequently encountered, but when it is encountered it is used as a pejorative, indicating some sort of persecution of religion.
If we were to redirect "secular" to secularism, we might with equal logic redirect objectivity to Objectivism or scientific to Scientology. A perfectly normal, non-prejudicial word should not be equated to an ideology that may be inflammatory.