The Evolution of Secular Thought

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2016

The institutions of a society reflect the social norms which prevail in that society. In Islamic societies, emphasis on norms of generosity led to creation of Awqaf on a wide scale in the middle ages. Scholars reports that one third of the recorded land in the Ottoman empire was devoted to Awqaf, which provided a wide range of social services. Similarly, in pre-modern Europe, the Catholic Church was involved in provision of social services on a huge scale. In European societies, bloody battles among different religious factions led to the emergence of secular thinking. Everyone, including religious leaders, agreed that it was best to construct social and political theory on neutral grounds upon which all different religious factions could agree. As a result, the Church was marginalized, and the space was created for emergence of philosophies which were diametrically opposed to religious teachings. Constrast the Biblical teaching “Love of money is the root of all evil,” with George Bernard Shaw’s dictum that “Lack of money is the root of all evil.”

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