After I read the news everyday and today after reading the chapter, I believe our assumtion that we are secularizing is a absolutely false. The world today as I see it, is frantically religious as always! Even though there is a huge population of atheists (1.1 billion according to Adherents.com), secularization is not a dominant trend. As religious organizations such as Churches and Temples are losing their former social and political influence; religion still remains significant often in new and unfamiliar forms. Not all of us go to a Church or a Temple every week, but most of us do believe in going on pilgrimages once in a while.
I believe that having some sort of faith is not wrong as long as it serves the purpose of preaching peace and satisfies the yearning of our 'soul' for purpose and meaning. However, when religion leads to some sort of fundamentalism is where the problem arises. I come from India, where communal riots between the Hindus and the Muslims is a common sight. 9/11 was a catastrophe which has left indelible images on our minds. There are many such catastrophic events that have proved time and again that a portion of the society/world has gone furiously religious as ever. Hence, in an era where people are killing each other in the name of religion and where the propenents of cosmic warfare justify the loss of innocent lives as serivng God's larger purpose, I am afraid we still have to go a long way to say that our world is secularizing.
I agree we have a long way to go, those who are in politics and are religious/spiritual have a moral compass that they go by and thats just being human to point in a direction you think is best, whether that be on religious issues or not, we all have our own compasses.
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