Religion And Colonialism: Secularism In The United States

Secularism is a part of colonialism. The idea of the “separation of Church and State” didn’t come about until years after the first British colonists in America, it eventually became a part of what we consider to be everyday American politics. Based on our first Amendment rights, it is our given right as human beings to be able to think and to speak out freely against the government, whether individually or as a “peaceful” assembly. Likewise, Congress is forbidden to “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” (The Constitution of the United States, First Amendment, Third Article of the Bill of Rights). It was this idea that there shall by no law that “[prohibits] the free exercise” of an establishment of religion that contributed to the birth of secularism. …show more content…
Colonialism force-fed religion to the people under the imperialistic rule, while secularism attempted to stop the imposition of religious thought by law. Secularism is the aftermath of colonialism. While the two may differ from one another, there are also similarities between the two. As mentioned, secularism and religion often go hand-in-hand, though they, by definition, should be separate from one another. Comparably, religion and colonialism work in conjunction with each other. By the rules that govern deductive reasoning, that then means that colonialism and secularism also work in tandem. While the reasoning itself is not that simple, it is very true that colonialism and secularism are, fundamentally, two halves of the same coin in the