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‡ Literally, material means: physical substance,
consisting of matter, or the substance out of which a
thing is or can be made.
‡ Conceptually;  
 is the theory which says
that: physical matter is the only reality and that
everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and
will, can be explained in terms of matter and
physical phenomena.
‡ It is a system of thought that explains the nature of
the world as entirely dependent on matter, the
fundamental and final reality beyond which nothing
need be sought.
 ï

‡ Is a theory which says that physical matter is the
only reality and that everything, including thought,
feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of
matter and physical phenomena.
‡ So the universe has no purpose or notion of good
and evil, other than the meaning and value that we
give it.
‡ Materialism denies, the role of God in the existence
and the operation of the universe.
‡ It also denies the existence of angles, spirits and
souls.
 ï
‡ This worldview assert the believe that: knowledge
based on something other than observation and
reason is invalid.
‡ Thus, it is not necessary to assume that the universe,
its life and humans had a Creator.
‡ Their existence can be explained by forces acting on
matter and random chance.
‡ Life involves only physical and chemical processes,
not some vital spirit.
 


Materialism have a number of problems including:
‡ Materialism means the belief in the subjective
eternal existence of matter. It is an opposition to
the theory of idealism because idealism rejects
totally any eternal existence of matter.
‡ It is a partial explanation of the universe. Because
it confines existence to the materialistic aspects of
life.




‡ The term ³secular´ is from Latin word ³p

which conveys dual meaning of time and location.

± The ³time´ refers to ³now´ or ³present´ while location

refers to the ³world´ and ³worldly´.
± 
 thus, means ³this age´ or the ³present time´
or the ³contemporary era´.
± Secularism refers to the condition of the world or the
particular time, period or age.
 ï
‡      ï, a modern Christian
theologian:
‡ Secularism is the liberation of man from religious
and metaphysical tutelage, that is, turning his
attention from the other worlds.
‡ He defines secularization as the deliverance of man
away from religious ideas and beliefs,
understandings, forms or systems, and from
metaphysical control over his reason and his
language.
 ï
‡ ï
  

  

‡ It encompasses the political, social and cultural aspects of
life, but it implies the disappearance of religious
determination as the symbols of integration and unity.
‡ It simply ignores God and affirms that man does not need
God.
‡ It makes religion as an individual matter, a thing of the
conscience, a matter of private faith which has a little to do
with man¶s social, economic and political life.
‡ Secularism implies ideas and institutions of purely human
origin and its teachings are man-made, not derived from the
divine sources.
‡ It is concerned with worldly affairs, not religious and
spiritual affairs.
 ï
‡     another Christian theologian, outlines three
fundamental characteristics of

 as follow:

 |  : It postulates blessed humanity as the ultimate

reality and ultimate aim of human being without reference to religion
and concern with life after death.

 |
     : It adopts a belief in natural causation and

emphasizes upon general ability and applicability of the
methodological pattern of human mathematical and analytical ability
for discovery of the truth. It also emphasizes on reason, observation
and experiment to the neglect of revelation.

  
! It is a belief, which is founded on humanism, in the

integrity and sacredness of free individual. It emphasizes on the
freedom of the individual to express their faith, thought and ideas. The
ultimate claim of liberalism is the religious freedom of man who has
the choice to reject or accept it.
 ï
‡ á |   a German sociologist, provides three
essential components of secularization:

" #

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‡ It implies the freeing of nature from its religious overtones.
This involves the expulsion of animistic spirits and gods and
superstition from the natural world.

‡ It implies separation of God from the nature so that man

will no longer regard nature as a divine entity. Therefore,
man can act freely upon natural according to his plans and
needs, thus, creating development and historical change.
 ï
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 &'

‡ Desacralizing means giving the secular full autonomy
without reference to any ultimate foundation. This denotes
the abolition of sacral legitimating of political power and
authority, which is a prerequisite of political change, and
also social change and thus, allowing the mergence of
historical process.
 ï
. # 
(

‡ This implies that all cultural creations and values systems
which include religion and worldviews having ultimate
significance as transient (brief/temporary). The future is
open to change and man is free to create change and include
himself in the evolutionary process.

‡ Secularization implies a continuing and open-ended process

in which values and worldviews are continually revised
according with evolutionary change in history.
Secularization is like a religion, which projects a closed
worldview and set of values in line with an ultimate
historical purpose. It is infant an ideology.
 '
 

-  !
- positive means: displaying certainty, or explicitly expressed.
Admitting no doubts.
ï 
- A doctrine contending that sense perceptions are the only
admissible basis of human knowledge and precise
thought.

- Or the application of this doctrine in logic, epistemology,

and ethics.

- A philosophy asserting the primacy of observation in

assessing the truth of statements of fact and holding that
metaphysical and subjective arguments not based on
observable data are meaningless.
 '
 

- Sometimes associated with empiricism, positivism maintains that
metaphysical questions are unanswerable and that 

  

    .

- Though many other philosophers contributed to the development of

this philosophy, however many aspects of this philosophy is attributed
to Auguste Comte (d.1857).

 According to positivism, society undergoes three different phases in its

quest for the truth. These three phases are the theological, the
metaphysical and the positive phases.
. Theological Stage:
1. Fetishism
2. Polytheism.
. Monotheism
). Philosophical/abstract thinking (early and mediaval ages)
ï. Positive Stage: (the age of science, our age).
 ï

According to positivism the history of man¶s intellectual
development could be divided into three stages:
‡ The mythological stage, when events of the universe are
explained in terms of divine powers. Myths, supernatural
powers and spiritual existence were popular in this level.

‡ The philosophical stage, were philosophical interpretations

were the means of understanding of the world, but gods played
less important role..

‡ The stage of positivism, where events are explained in terms of

common laws deduced from observation and calculation
without having recourse to spirit, God or absolute power.
 á 

1. The word µmodern¶ is derived from Latin 

in the
sense ³just now´. The word literally means: recent,
contemporary, being at this time and existing now.
2. Conceptually; it is the tendency of understanding life
based on modern thought, character, or practice, and
sympathy with or conformity to modern ideas, or
standards.
. Modernity and its pioneers claimed that this world is
run by natural laws, which are in every existence rather
than Divine Power.
4. Modernists explain themselves as a deliberate departure from
tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that
distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the 20th
century.
 ï
1.The progress of science and the expansion of knowledge
had enabled man to observe, that which was beyond his
observation in the past.
b. Modernity claimed that, physics, psychology and history
proved conclusively that all those events which man
explained in terms of the existence of a God or Gods,
or some abstract µPower¶ had entirely different causes,
but that man, steeped in ignorance, continued to speak
of them in terms of religious mystery.
c. Modernity calls for rationalization, secularization,
individualism, subjectivism (in values), linear
progression, objectivism (in learning nature), rational
universalism and industrial society.
 ï

‡ ï 
 á 
:
± God is nothing more than a projection of man on a
cosmic screen.
± The concept of another world was nothing but: ³a
beautiful idealization of human wishes´.
± Divine inspiration and revelation were merely an
³extraordinary expression of the childhood repressions.
± Human rationality and scientific factual experience
should replace religious interpretations of the universe.
± Knowledge that is factual is connected with experience
and observation (human mind).
 '
 

‡ The term ³postmodernity´ is used in a number of
ways, however, its basic assumption is a failure of
modernity, and a new evolving status.
‡ Postmodern means: postmodern thought relating to
art, architecture, or literature that reacts against
earlier modernist principles.
‡ Postmodernist movement rejected modernism as a
failure of evolution of man. Most generally,
³postmodernity´ is the state or condition of being
postmodern particularly in reference in literature
and culture.
 ï

‡ Postmodernity is concerned with changes to institutions and
conditions, whereas postmodernism is an artistic, literary,
political or social philosophy.

‡ It restructures our lifestyle, culture, custom and civilization.

‡ In other words, postmodernism is the ³cultural and

intellectual phenomenon´, especially since the 1920s¶ new
movements in the arts, while postmodernity focuses on
social and political outworkings in society, especially since
the 1960s¶ new movements in societies, taking place around
the world.
 i


i   

1. $ *

‡ Postmodernism rejects all forms of truth claims as such that all

notions of Truth, Reason, Morality, God, Tradition and History are
meaningless and rejected.

‡ Postmodernism rejects all worldviews may it be science, religion and

Marxism, as it claims these as artificial constructions that are totally
totalitarian by their very nature?

‡ An American guru of postmodernism, Richard Rorty says, ³nothing

has an intrinsic nature which may be expressed or represented and
everything is a product of time and change´.
‡ Postmodernism accepts nothing as absolute and it rejoices in total
relativism.

‡ Postmodernism considers all types, as well as all sources, of

knowledge with equal skepticism. There is hardly any difference
between science and magic. Knowledge is acquired not through
inquiry but by imagination
 ï
% $ + 
‡ Postmodernism is a denial of reality, all types of
reality.

‡ Postmodernism suggests that there is no ultimate

Realty behind things; we see largely what we want
to see, what our cultural and historic perceptions
focus on.

‡ Postmodernism also suggests that the distinction

between image and materiality has been lost.
 ï
,. -   
‡ Reality has been drowning into the ocean of images.

‡ There is no possibility of meaning as there is

difficulty in establishing the imaginative and
speculative with the actual material.

‡ It is like a video game being seduced by the allure of

spectacle. We have all become characters in the
global game, zapping our way from here to there,
fighting wars in cyberspace, making love to
digitized bits of information.
 ï
.. á 

  


‡ The world is without truth and reason.

‡ There is no knowledge about existence as there is no

possibility of knowing its meanings.

‡ Everything has to be deconstructed. But once

deconstruction has reached its natural conclusion,
we are left with a grand void: there is nothing that
can remotely provide us with meaning, with sense of
direction, with a scale to distinguish between good
and evil.
 ï
/ * #
‡ Postmodernism generates doubt about everything.
‡ Doubt is the perpetual and perennial condition of
postmodernism.
‡ It is best described by the motto of the cult
television series Ä
 
p ³Trust no One´.
‡ In postmodern theory, this extended to include no
theory, no absolute, no experience, that is, doubt
everything.