This month's First Things has a great article on secularism and its apparent demise. This is from Michael Novak:
"Professors in countless classrooms in many different disciplines report that students have already been well taught that, when they are faced with any moral proposition, the proper response is, 'That's just your opinion.' They are resistant, then, to resolving disagreements by reasoned arguments. They aver, 'You choose your good, and I'll choose mine.' Reasoned debate is replaced by naked will. I choose. Don't ask me to give reasons--I just choose...
"The prevailing moral code of the West was [in past ages] informed by the wisdom of our forefathers, but in the new vision developed by secular humanism that old code is no longer relevant. The biting challenge of Nietzsche still nags at us: If God is really dead, by what authority do we say any particular practice is prohibited or permitted? In the resulting moral diarray in our society, the most immediate of moral questions has become unsettled: How shall we raise our children? What kind of moral example should we set?"
-Michael Novak, "Remembering the Secular Age"
He's spot on here. This is why we study--so that we can "give a reason for the hope that is in us" and for our conviction that there is the Good, the True, and the Beautiful and that we can know and love him.
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