Madam, - Several weeks have gone passed since Joe Humphries (Rite and Reason, November 14th) called for real dialogue between believers and secularists.
I have waited, but I have seen no response in these columns; only G.L. referred to it in "Thinking Anew". Maybe Joe Humphries was right in saying, "Many secular critics of religion feel more comfortable carping on the sidelines than engaging in dialogue".
Now, everyone believes something about life and its purpose. To reject religion is to believe something different - it is not neutral or unbiased. Humanism and materialism are subject to pitfalls like other religions, including fundamentalist tendencies.
As for his concerns about whether the Pope is serious about dialogue, I would distinguish between two types of secularism. Many people simply can't accept Christian beliefs, or struggle with them. So do Christians, and the life of faith is meant to be a journey of discovery.
But the more dangerous trend, with totalitarian leanings, can be called "doctrinaire secularism". It contends that:
1. Matters of public life should not be influenced by any conventional religious belief, whereas their opposites (materialism, hedonism, etc) may be given free rein.
2. All religious belief is individual, and has no need to grow or develop by rubbing shoulders with the beliefs of others.
3. Specific religions, rather than being judged on their merits, are assumed to have none.
So this is a very definite religious belief. Its danger is that such people may be allowed to call all the shots in public life, by claiming to be neutral and concerned for equality.
Note that calls to abolish Christian references in public life (e.g. cribs in hospitals) usually come, not from immigrant communities, but from Irish secularists. Often these are people who have been hurt by established religion, and still have open wounds. Like many victim groups, they don't always see the same need to have the respect for others that they would like shown to themselves.
Such people need understanding, but they should not be let call all the shots. The irony is that if the church were functioning properly, it could be the agent of Christ's healing to these people.
Derek Scally (World View, Christmas Eve) reports on the tide turning against secularism in Germany. Is this an indication that, as a belief system, it has been found wanting? - Yours, etc,
ALAN FRENCH, Mulgrave Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.