Beginning in the Fall 2011 semester, Pitzer College, a liberal arts college in southern California, will offer a new major in secular studies. According to this article in The New York Times, it is the first of its kind.
The new major will include courses with the following titles: “God, Darwin and Design in America,” “Anxiety in the Age of Reason,” and “Bible as Literature.”
I wonder how a degree in secular studies at a secular college (non-church-related) like Pitzer is different from a degree in religious studies. It would seem that the courses listed above could also count toward a religious studies degree at most secular colleges or universities.
Here is a taste of the New York Times article:
The department was proposed by Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist of religion, who describes himself as “culturally Jewish, but agnostic-atheist on questions of deep mystery.” Over the years he grew increasingly intrigued by the growth of secularism in the United States and around the world. He studied and taught in Denmark, one of the world’s most secular countries, and has written several books about atheism.
Studying nonbelief is as valid as studying belief, Mr. Zuckerman said, and the new major will make that very clear.
“It’s not about arguing ‘Is there a God or not?’ ” Mr. Zuckerman said. “There are hundreds of millions of people who are nonreligious. I want to know who they are, what they believe, why they are nonreligious. You have some countries where huge percentages of people — Czechs, Scandinavians — now call themselves atheists. Canada is experiencing a huge wave of secularization. This is happening very rapidly.
“It has not been studied,” he added.
The percentage of American adults who say they have no religion has doubled in 20 years, to 15 percent, according to the American Religious Identification Survey, released in 2008. The survey was conducted by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, which houses the Institute for the Study of Secularism, Society and Culture but does not have a distinct major in secular studies.
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