Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life

By Austin Dacey

From Washington to the Vatican to Tehran, religion is a public matter as never before, and secular values -- individual autonomy, pluralism, separation of religion and state, and freedom of conscience -- are attacked on all sides and defended by few. The godly claim a monopoly on the language of morality, while secular liberals stand accused of standing for nothing.Secular liberals did not lose their moral compass: they gave it away. For generations, too many have insisted that questions of conscience -- religion, ethics, and values -- are "private matters" that have no place in public debate. Ironically, this ideology hinders them from subjecting religion to due scrutiny when it encroaches on individual rights and from unabashedly advocating their own moral vision in politics for fear of "imposing" their beliefs on others.In his incisive new book, philosopher Austin Dacey calls for a bold rethinking of the nature of conscience and its role in public life. Inspired by an earlier liberal tradition that he traces to Spinoza and John Stuart Mill, Dacey urges liberals to lift their self-imposed gag order and defend a renewed secularism based on the objective moral value of conscience.Dacey compares conscience to the press in an open society: it is protected from coercion and control, not because it is private, but because it has a vital role in the public sphere. It is free, but not liberated from shared standards of truth and right. It must come before any and all faiths, for it is what tells us whether or not to believe. In this way, conscience supplies a shared vocabulary for meaningful dialogue in a diverse society, and an ethical lingua franca in which to address the world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591026040
• ISBN13: 9781591026044
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 269 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Why we cannot tolerate intolerance

"The Secular Conscience" by Austin Dacey presents a sophisticated meditation on secularism and its importance to us today. Mr. Dacey seeks to shake secular liberalism from its complacency lest the Enlightenment project of an open society becomes run over by fundamentalist Christians and totalitarian Islam. Thanks to Mr. Dacey's elegant, mature and well-informed analysis, we gain the courage we need to assert our right to freedom of conscience and to challenge ideologies of belief in the public sphere. Mr. Dacey recounts the historical process by which the West broke with the Church and separated religion from government. Today, faith has come to be marketed to believers as their own private property and seeks to avoid accountability in political debate even as it exerts considerable influence over policy. Mr. Dacey submits that secularists must drop their predisposition to moral relativism and demand that Christians justify their positions on issues such as stem cell research and evolution based on reasonable standards of evidence and scientific inquiry. On the other hand, Mr. Dacey explains that Islam has not undergone a process of separation from the state; the Islamic state is more accurately defined as a political form of religion. Mr. Dacey brings attention to courageous individuals who are challenging the blasphemy laws that preclude the free expression of the individual in Islamic society. The author castigates the Western media, feminists and others for their tolerance of intolerance and failing to recognize the threat that Islamic totalitarianism poses to our values; he goes on to implore us to support the youth in Iran and other Islamic states who yearn for a free, secular future. Throughout the book, Mr. Dacey explores related ethical and philosophical themes and ideas that bring a remarkable depth of meaning to the text. We come to appreciate that the secular conscience is a moral conscience that is based on collective inquiry, reflection and consensus; this kind of dialogue is needed now more than ever if we wish to achieve lasting peace and justice for humankind. I thank William Podmore for bringing my attention to this outstanding book and highly recommend it to everyone.

Excellent study of the secular basis of ethics

Austin Dacey is an American philosopher and a representative at the United Nations of the Center for Inquiry, which promotes the secular, scientific outlook. He is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry. In this brilliant and original book, Dacey advocates a public, objective and secular ethics. He argues that matters of conscience are fit subjects for public discussion guided by shared evaluative standards, evidence and experience. Conscience must be free from coercion, but not free from judgement. Conscience is protected so that we can pursue the vital questions of meaning, truth and value in public dialogue and forums. But the Roman Catholic Church has decreed, "Freedom of thought or expression ... cannot imply a right to offend the religious sentiments of believers." But this would end freedom of expression, because any criticism of religious doctrines could `offend the religious sentiments of believers'. The assertion, `I'm right, you're wrong' is not intolerant; it is the nature of thought, as is then moving forward to saying, `and these are the reasons why you should change your mind'. This is not imposing one's opinion on others: persuasion is the opposite of coercion. To defend one's point of view by saying, "I'm entitled to my opinion" is to refuse debate. The only opinions worth respect are those derived from investigation and debate. The basis of ethics is independence of mind, with which we can evaluate all ideas and ideologies in the light of reason. Dacey argues that "the secular conscience stands prior to and independent of all religions." Religion is unnecessary to ethics: if God approves an act because it is good, then God is superfluous: if an act is good because God approves it, then there is no ethics, just assertion of authority. As Dacey writes, "The real sceptics about ethics are those who think that human beings are incapable of fairness, responsibility, care, and compassion without divine enforcement." These sceptics privilege religion at the expense of ethics, faith at the expense of reason, and dogma at the expense of people.

"Not One Dull Page."

If you have a good brain, and like to use it, this book is for you. There is intellectual interest on every page. This is a work that requires, and deserves, I believe, a measured and thoughtful read. Dacey has written a challenging and rewarding book with a unique point of view. Read properly, "The Secular Conscience" should stimulate those of us interested in social justice to apply its progressive ideas in as many fruitful ways as possible.

A must read

It has long bothered me that some people refuse to categorically reject horrors like the Holocaust, because they believe everything is subjective, and all cultures and approaches have their virtues. Common sense indicates there should be some objective perspective that can help us to understand why Holocaust-like atrocities and tyrannical societies and governments are bad. Austin Dacey's powerful "Secular Conscience" explains how such objective standards can be formed. In a stroke of brilliant creativity, he uses the same types of ideas that have helped spearhead open source software approaches to operating systems. I believe this to be one of the most important books that liberals--and anyone who cares about human rights--could possibly read. If you've wondered how to combat the ultimately pernicious ideas of cultural relativism that can be used to justify virtually any atrocity, this is the book.