“But are we really sure about the name?”
The thing that has always bugged me a bit about the AHS is that the ‘S’ stands for ’secular’.
I would like to point out that the word ’secular’ means non-religious. What I think the ‘S’ should stand for is secularist. Why?
A secularist is someone who advocates secularism - that’s the idea of having a secular state. But having a secular society… well, lots of societies are secular. Warwick’s “Wine and Whiskey” society is secular. Warwick Snow is secular. Now do you see what I mean?
A secularist society would be, I think, one that could dabble in the things that other AHS-affiliated societies do; atheism and humanism and rationalism all thrown in together, because these are natural precursors to promoting a secular state. There’s a difference between ’secular’ and ’secularist’, and being secular doesn’t necessarily imply the latter. What’s more, being secular doesn’t justify irreligious events; it just means the society holds no religious viewpoint. In fact, boasting being a secular society should mean that the society has nothing to do with religion at all, even being critical of it…
A secular state is one that gives no benefit to the religious. In that sense, it’s what could be described as “religion-neutral”. Now, if it can give no benefit to the religious, it can’t really disadvantage the religious on the grounds of religion either. It can’t speak out against religion or criticise it, because we’re secular, not atheist.
Secularists, on the other hand, are justified in speaking out against religion as long as religion still enjoys unwarranted benefits. Secularists can be anti-religious as a matter of persuading and campaigning for a secular state.