Sir, – In view of the remarks of Rev Patrick G Burke (October 22nd) it is time to define what a secular society is and is not. It is not an ethos. It is not an ideology, such as are all forms of religious belief. It is not atheism, which is an inability to take seriously the claims that are made for the existence of a supernatural being.
Secularism is completely neutral to all of these. It is a tabula rasa, a separation of church and state, where all such points of view can be accommodated. It is what exists in the US under the establishment clause in its constitution, which has allowed for the free propagation of religious belief of all sorts while ensuring that there is no discrimination, as there is in Ireland, in relation to state-funded education.
It is time we had it here. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.