Liberalism and secularism

 Imran Shahid Bhandar

 Liberalism was born in Britain in the seventeenth century with the Industrial Revolution.  The British philosopher John Locke is called the "Father of Liberalism".  Not only that, but Locke is also recognized as the philosopher of the Revolution of 1688, when the reign of the Catholic King James II came to an end, and the constitutional monarchy was founded.  The most important of the few basic ideas put forward by John Locke was that * the basis of all knowledge is experience.  And Wahhabi thoughts are just a delusion. * That is, man is not born with some thoughts, but the basis of all kinds of knowledge is his senses.  Man's emotional centrality has dealt a severe blow to transcendence, and has severely damaged transcendental centrality.  Locke believed that human beings are born equal and free, and have the ability to make better decisions about themselves.  It also damaged the notion of faith-based superiority.

 After the French Revolution, liberal ideas spread rapidly throughout Europe, Britain, and the United States.  Before the French Revolution, Emmanuel Kant, in his book Critique of Reason, concluded on a logical basis that man is basically "and in himself", that is, he is the best moral, scientific, political based on rational principles.  Can formulate rules.  Rousseau believes that the state must be subject to the will of the people so that it can continue its journey successfully.  Among the few principles on which liberal philosophy was based, based on the British experience, the French Enlightenment and the German objectivity, are the most important and prominent: freedom, individuality, reason, justice and collective well-being.  Apart from these, the important principle that was formulated, which was a direct reaction to the barbarism and horror of the divine religion, was tolerance, forbearance and so on.

 Secularism is born directly from the womb of empirical and rational philosophies.  When the intellect takes precedence over faith, then faith must be content with a secondary status.  If "general or public will" (democracy) prevails over the state, then all kinds of legislation, moral principles, concepts of welfare must be carried out under that general will.  No belief can be brought to the center by keeping them at bay.  Thus democracy began to flourish in Western countries.  The separation of faith from the state and state institutions had become inevitable with the revival of rational philosophies.  Belief was considered a personal matter and was deprived of a decisive role in state and public affairs.  Belief remained in the public sphere but as an individual, but in the state institutions the supremacy of religion and the discrimination among the people on the basis of religion ceased.  Therefore, secularism can only be understood in terms of these concepts.