With the formation of a secular studies department in the fall, Pitzer College, located in Claremont, will become the nation’s first to offer secularism as a major. This private liberal arts school, located just 26 miles away from Biola, will be teaching their students to see the value of the separation of faith and learning.

The word secularism comes from the Latin “in saeculo,” and literally means “in the world.” It has come to mean the separation of church and state, according to Muriel Fraser, a researcher for the National Secular Society in Britain. More precisely, secularism is “the separation of religious organizations from the state,” Fraser says on the National Secular Society website.

Number of atheists increasing

David Horner, associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Biola, said he sees this introduction of secularism as a major as evidence of an increase in the new atheist movement.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, released in 2008, the percentage of professing Christians is going down while the percentage of those who don’t claim a religion is going up. 86 percent of American adults claimed to be Christians in 1990 with the number decreasing to 76 percent in 2008. While the number of professed Christians reduced, those who claimed to have no religion increased from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.

Horner says that it is sad that more people are identifying themselves publicly as atheists or secularists. “It is a sad commentary on the state of things, particularly in the church,” Horner said. He thinks the church may be partially responsible for the reason that many people are going in the direction of secularism.

“It’s our fault in not providing people with solid reasons for believing in God,” Horner said. “The hypocrisy in the church and so on has turned a lot of people away.”

Idea for major came from sociology professor

The idea to start this major was brought about by Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology at Pitzer College, who specializes in sociology of religion. For years, Zuckerman has been exploring the study of secularism having written both “Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment” in 2008 and “Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being: How the Findings of Social Science Counter Negative Stereotypes and Assumptions” in 2010.

Zuckerman said in the May 7th “New York Times” article “Pitzer College in California Adds Major in Secularism,” that studying non-belief is as valid as studying belief and this new major will make that very clear.

Courses within the major

According to the article, professors from various fields of study will teach, and they will be offering classes such as “God, Darwin and Design in America” and “Anxiety in the Age of Reason.”

“Personally, I think those kinds of courses could be offered here at Biola so that we can learn about those issues and how to combat them with Christian views,” said Biola junior Kelsey Gaskins.

Scott Waller, assistant professor of political science at Biola University, said that there are, different fields of study that are supposed to define what’s real and reasonable to believe in, and to have that kind of program launched within any major university is par for the course.

“To have a department of secular studies would seem to entail a higher level of knowledge, that we’ve moved beyond religious ways of seeing the world and that we now see things in terms of secularism,” Waller said. He said secularism “is largely influenced and guided by the physical sciences. If you want to have knowledge of things, you go secular. If you want to have beliefs about things, you maintain religious beliefs.”

Possible benefits of secularism major

Biola freshman Jennifer Miller said she does not see the benefits of teaching secularism. “People learn more through their worldview experiences and how they live in and view the world — they learn from living life,” she said. “That would have more of an impact than learning a worldview in the classroom. Your worldview is defined by your experiences, not precisely what someone tells you.”

Horner said that there may be a positive side to a secularism major — there may end up being more honesty about secularism and the recognition that it is a worldview. Universities have been teaching from a secular point of view without realizing it is actually a point of view, he said.

“Maybe by acknowledging this as a perspective that merits a major, just like religious studies merits a major, there will be a little more honesty about the role that a perspective plays in teaching someone,” Horner said. “There will be less of an assumption that this is the neutral point of view when in fact it’s not neutral at all. … It is a particular religious point of view. It just happens to be a religious point of view that denies the existence of God.”

Sarah Seman, senior news editor for The Chimes, contributed to this article.