LETTER: Religious freedom is not denial of secularism
To the editor:
In response to the article about religious freedom, I must say that I agree religious freedom is a very important right. However, I just wanted to make sure the term “religious freedom” wasn’t being misconstrued with the idea that religion can or should overtake secularism – separation of church and state – and the humanist policies based on scientific evidence that are integral to it.
Because freedom of religion allows people to worship and believe how they choose, this can and does lead to people worshiping and believing in all sorts of inhumane things. This is why secularism is so crucial. Secularism overrides the inhumane things of religions. For example, it creates laws that protect against animal sacrifice, denying your child medical treatment and persecuting someone because they have differing beliefs.
What the founding fathers of the United States, like Jefferson, meant by “separation of church and state” is that people can be a member of a religion and/or hold their personal religious views. However, the organized religion and/or personal views should not dictate public policy. This is especially pertinent to the U.S. at present as some lawmakers want to deny LGBT marriage on the basis that it does not fit “traditional marriage” as stipulated by the Bible, a religious text. Now I do not support a secular government – like Stalinist Russia – that prevents freedom of religion any more than I support a religious government doing the same thing. However, in order to prevent that from happening in the United States, all public policy must be based on sound scientific humanist policies and not on religious beliefs.
– Muriel McGregor