Secularism vs. Religion: What's Behind It?

So why is spirituality contrary to secularism? Couldn’t both coexist as they have for the past several millennia? Why not? What’s changed so much that would make the proposition unviable? This is something of a provocative problem, but all of us already know the answer to it, don’t we? The answer is “yes”.

Hang on a minute, if the answer is quite simply “yes, secularism and spirituality can coexist”, then why is it that there is so much conflict between the two in modern society? The answer to that question is twofold:

The first element is this: Spirituality is source of comfort and self-sufficient fulfilment to most spiritual/religious people. It is more times than not independent from one’s financial status and it requires little or nothing in the way of monetary investment (some even preach against awarding wealth too much stock). It simultaneously gives a person a sense of belonging to something greater than oneself and it distinguishes you quite individually before one’s faith in the sense that it is a personal experience. It entices an individual to seek to better himself in terms of what he is. It prompts you toward valour, charity and understanding. It requires dedication and altruism. It rewards with consolation, self awareness and connection to a community. Happiness becomes a function of this reward.

The other element is this: Secular Western Society has grown away from its traditional values to embrace a newer and different set. Whereas a man was once defined by origin, commitment and achievement, today a man is defined mostly by appearance and financial achievement alone. Per the current social requirement, we are expected to seek wealth as a means to achieve happiness. We work to prove our worth and to seek the means to procure contentment. In our present capitalist society, gratification is sought through consumerism. The concept is simple: we make money to spend money rewarding ourselves in a cyclic pattern of satisfaction and longing. The more money we make, the better we are before the eyes of our peers. It matters more that we have money than how we’ve made it. That’s because we are judged by how we appear in public. With more money, we can present ourselves better; with better garments and with posh cars and stamped passports. This is an ingenious social system insofar as economics are concerned.

So, if you don’t yet grasp the conflict, I’ll make it plain for you: The concept of self-sufficient fulfilment present in spiritualism is in stark contrast to the concept of renewable gratification proposed by consumerism. It makes sense, if you think of it.

While spiritualism is a personal search that beckons the shedding of material attachment in exchange for timeless bliss, consumerism is a socioeconomic order that is dependent on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase commodities in ever greater amounts. It isn’t meant to be fulfilling as much as it is purposefully meant not to be. It generates only temporary gratification whereby it becomes economically renewable. If that gratification were ever to become perpetual contentment, the entire system proposed by consumerism would collapse, as there would be no renewal on consumption. In other words, at the same time as spiritualism is more an internal search for happiness, consumerism proposes an external source of gratification dependent on social acceptance through material wealth.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I were a greedy tycoon whose power and recognition came from the maintenance of consumerism, I might feel threatened by any alternative system of fulfilment; especially one that proved viable.

Hereby do we find the source of the conflict. While genuine spiritualism is happy to coexist with other systems, rampant capitalism, which we call consumerism, isn’t. Yet, consumerism doesn’t offer strong enough arguments against spiritualism on its own. You can’t just tell people they have to let go of God just for the sake of a new car or a new trip (or the wealth of the industrialist behind these desirable items). Where does consumerism seek support then? In relativism and in secular radicalism.

By blaming the ills of Humanity on spiritualism (or rather the mistakes and values of different religious sects), and by breaking with religious aspirations and codes of conduct, the promotion of secularist thinking offers only consumerism as a replacement source of fulfilment; thereby triggering the consumption cycle that fuels consumerism.

Make no mistake: radical capitalism is using secular relativism to fight spiritualism. It is competing with religion because its promoters know that spiritual fulfilment can outdo the fleeting gratifications offered by consumerism.

Hence, radical secularists are actually the priests of consumerism preaching against spiritualism to promote ephemeral happiness and the decay of modern society.