Americas Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion (Brief Encounters)

In this timely and wide-ranging book, one of America's leading public intellectuals explores the rise of radical secular humanism as a religious experience. London shows that while secular humanism has it's saints, sinners, and even its quasi-religious rituals, it is too anemic and self-centered a philosophy of life to serve America and the West in its battle against the threat of radical Islam. "In this timely and wide-ranging book, one of America's leading public intellectuals argues that the rise of radical secularism in the United States is a flaccid response to the challenge presented by the fanaticism of radical Islam. In the so-called war of ideas, our reflexive belief in relativism has handicapped our ability to thwart the inroads of fanaticism. Opposition to traditional religion; multiculturalism and cultural relativism; materialism; belief in scientific rationality as the ultimate arbiter of human value: taken together, these features of the secularist's creed underwrite a view of life that is ill equipped to meet the challenge of a zealous enemy with totalitarian ambitions. In undermining the traditional roots of America, argues Herb London, secular humanism has destroyed the West's only beliefs worth defending. This anemic remodeling of our culture has left us exposed in the monumental battle against ideological forces with radical global ambitions. America's Secular Challenge is a sobering wake-up call and a battle plan for the political and existential trials of the twenty-first century."--Publisher marketing "In this book, one of America's leading public intellectuals argues that the rise of radical secularism in the United States is a flaccid response to the challenge presented by the fanaticism of radical Islam. In the so-called war of ideas, our reflexive belief in relativism has handicapped our ability to thwart the inroads of fanaticism." "America's Secular Challenge is a sobering wake-up call and a battle plan for the political and existential trials of the twenty-first century."--Jacket Explores the rise of radical secular humanism as a religious experience. This work shows that while secular humanism has it's saints, sinners, and even its quasi-religious rituals, it is too anemic and self-centered a philosophy of life to serve America and the West in its battle against the threat of radical Islam. Introduction Secularism : America's new religion Truth as a relative concept The limitations of science Government's rationalist largesse Patriotism as a moral problem Tolerance, discrimination, and discernment Conclusion.