Austin Dacey

Has secularism lost its soul? From Washington to the Vatican to Tehran,
religion is a public matter as never before, and secular values—individual autonomy, pluralism,
separation of religion and state, and freedom of conscience—are attacked on all sides and defended
by few. The ... (more)godly claim a monopoly on the language of morality, while secular liberals stand accused
of standing for nothing.In The Secular Conscience philosopher Austin Dacey calls for a dramatic rethinking of the nature of conscience and its role in public life. By arguing for generations that questions of conscience are private matters, secular liberals have given away their moral compass; allowing for political debate on the subject of morality to be dominated by religion for fear of imposing their beliefs on others. Here, Dacey urges liberals to lift their self-imposed gag order and defend a new secularism based on the objective moral value of conscience, which must come before all religions because it tells us whether or not to believe, and in doing so offers an ethical lingua franca for a diverse society to discuss the world.