Secularism

Secularism is an ideology based around the principle of conducting human affairs based on non-religious and naturalistic considerations only.

Beliefs
Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civic affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere. The term "secularism" has a broad range of meanings, and in the most schematic, may encapsulate any stance that promotes the secular in any given context. Secularism is opposed to both state atheism and theocratic rule, since it regards people's rights to practice their religious beliefs freely, both of these governmental systems are opposed to secularism since they try to force beliefs onto people.

Anglo-American Secularism
Secularism in the Anglo-American sense finds it's roots within the Colonial era of America where, in 1636, Roger Williams established a settlement in Rhode Island. This settlement permitted total religious freedom. This, along with the later enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke, would go on to heavily influence the founding fathers of the United States.

As a result, the founding fathers would later would later enshrine within the first amendment of the constitution the foundations of American Secularism with what is known as the establishment clause. This clause states as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

This established the primary purpose of American Secularism, which was not the total exclusion of religion from government (like in French secularism) but rather the inclusion of all religions in the government. This is made in order to ensure that no one religion is discriminated against and no religion is given too much power.

French Secularism
French Secularism, also called Laicism or Laïcité, is a stance regarding institutional religion which believes that religion and society shouldn't mix and faith should be left as a purely personal matter. Although laicism is commonly used interchangeably with secularism, it differs from the Anglo-American interpretation of secularism in the regard that the latter does not seek to make religion a purely personal matter, but to make the state free of it.

Introduced in 1905, secularism originally represented the victory of anti-clerical republicanism, which, ever since the French Revolution of 1789, had stigmatised the Roman Catholic Church as a bastion of reaction, ignorance and superstition. In concrete terms, the 1905 law dramatically limited the power of the Church by enshrining three key principles: strict separation of Church and State, freedom of conscience and freedom to exercise any faith.

In contemporary France, however, the conflict with the Roman Catholic Church is long dead, with the result that secularism has come to stand for something else: managing ethnic differences in a society that is diametrically opposed to the community based approach advocated in the English-speaking world. According to this modern schema, secularism is about avoiding Anglo-Saxon style ghettos; coming together as citizens; and transcending narrow religious differences.

Personality and Behavior
Secularism is an objective ideology that likes to use their head rather than their hearth. He gets along with, atheists and ideologies that advocate for freedom of religion. He hates theocracies, superstitions and religious extremists.

How to Draw

 * 1) Draw a circle.
 * 2) Fill it with white.
 * 3) Draw a blue atom in the center.
 * 4) Draw the eyes and you're done!

Friends

 * [[File:Laicism.png]] - Religion needs to get out of government. Although, you're a tad too auth for me.
 * [[File:Civlibert.png]] - We both support self-expression and allowing people to worship whoever they want.

Frenemies

 * [[File:Confess.png]] - Well, at least you respect other faiths and people's right to not practice religion? Although, many of the countries with established religions only have it for cultural reasons.

Enemies

 * [[File:Stateath.png]] - Let people have their faiths!
 * [[File:Theocrat.png]] Theocracies - Let people have their disbeliefs!