The Secular Outlook

Abstract

Atheism, Agnosticism, and TheismNon -Religious Ethics is at a very early stage.We cannot yet predict whether, as in Mathematics, we will all reach agreement.Since we cannot know how Ethics will develop, it is not irrational to have high hopes.(Derek Parfi t, 1984) 1 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) Let us start with what people most often associate with " the secular outlook." If with anything at all, they associate it with atheism.But what is atheism?Sometimes atheism is presented as a coherent worldview, encompassing all the other traditions supposedly associated with the secular outlook.On this basis the Christian theologian and physicist Alister McGrath (1953 -) writes: " Atheism is the religion of the autonomous and rational human being, who believes that reason is able to uncover and express the deepest truths of the universe, from the mechanics of the rising sun to the nature and fi nal destiny of humanity." 2 The fi rst thing that strikes us is that atheism is presented here as a " religion." A second point that is remarkable is that McGrath depicts as " atheism " beliefs that most people would associate with " rationalism." In clarifying his defi nition the author even introduces other elements, such as optimism.Atheism, so McGrath writes, " was a powerful, self -confi dent, and aggressive worldview.Possessed of a boundless confi dence, it proclaimed that the world could be fully 1

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