Secularism

[Ravenscroft]

Okay, that makes more sense to me now.
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On the one hand, I've met plenty of "atheists" & "skeptics" over the years who were True Believers shopping for a cause, & turned into fullblown fanatics when they came to roost. So I'd have to say that a "non-believer" is not automatically immune from flights of illogic, merely lacking in convenient excuses.
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It's true enough that people with a worldview significantly dependent upon "faith" are vulnerable to being manipulated by others, so long as that belief system is activated & turned to other purposes. One definition of faith is "belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence."

Someone once said, "I don't have 'faith' in anything I can't eat, f@ck, or put in the bank!" Though I was shocked, I soon realized that this is kinda MY way of facing the world; as Mom told me, "Trust... but verify!" (& "Always forgive -- never forget." )

Having "faith" leaves one open to behaving as-if-true with stuff that CANNOT be proven, demonstrated, or verified. Logical absurdity, really; I mean, I'm more altruistic than most, but when I donate to the Animal Shelter, I at least know that the shelter exists even though I don't verify what's actually done with the cash & supplies I drop off.

So, present Believers with another absurdity that has a few commonalities with their belief system, & a "resonant" connection might draw them in closer. Since they're ALREADY in the habit of hypnotizing themselves into "belief," it's like watching a hypnotist take advantage of a suggestion previously implanted by someone else.

The big bonus is that since they're already accustomed to "believe two impossible things before breakfast," those initial connections don't really need to have ANY reality, the "believers" are open to accepting memes that a fully rational person would reject outright -- for instance, that mass shootings (schools, clubs, churches) are all staged performances by professional "crisis actors" hired by the Liberals just to make the NRA look bad & take away the free access to firearms that was granted the United States in the Old Testament. (No, I'm not making the first part up -- go to Snopes.com or FactCheck.org & search crisis actors.) (Though I wouldn't be surprised to hear some Righty claim the latter.)

[MADadventures]

Might being agnostic be considered being open to the possibility of something beyond our scope of understanding but not being bound to it's will, whereas secularism leaves the individual to acknowledge there are things that cannot or need not be answered by a book and their outcome is determined by their own will?

[vinsanity0]

Originally Posted by MADadventures

Might being agnostic be considered being open to the possibility of something beyond our scope of understanding but not being bound to it's will, whereas secularism leaves the individual to acknowledge there are things that cannot or need not be answered by a book and their outcome is determined by their own will?

Agnosticism is the belief that if there is a God we would not be able to understand it. Therefore, even if we were bound to it's will we wouldn't know it.

Secularism is a political belief. It doesn't matter what anyone believes as long as religious beliefs stay out of government.