In 2012, 74,193 students attended 260 divinity schools in North America. That same year, Pitzer College, a small liberal arts college near Los Angeles, offered students a new option: an undergraduate degree in secular studies. In an increasingly secular world, Pitzer sociology professor Phil Zuckerman, author of Society Without God and Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion, wanted a curriculum affording students the opportunity to study secularism’s many different forms and meanings.
Academics reacted skeptically and questioned Zuckerman’s motives. Boston University sociologist Peter Berger sent him an email, expressing his hope that Pitzer’s program wouldn’t serve as “an excuse to push atheism.” Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Wheaton College English professor Alan Jacobs insisted that the program “should avoid triumphalism” and could be considered objective “if some of its students come in as devout atheists or agnostics and leave as religious believers.”
While Pitzer’s program raised eyebrows, no academic openly questioned the motives of the thirteen faculties that established new divinity schools in 2012. As he wondered about the academic objectivity of Pitzer’s program, Peter Berger didn’t seem bothered that he had published two books advocating Christian beliefs. Alan Jacobs offered no parallel critique of Wheaton College, which has fired professors for expressing “un-Christian” beliefs or behaviors (for one example, see www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/education/04wheaton.html)
Professor Zuckerman did not let hypocritical criticism deter him. He made the obvious point that if any secular studies program became “simply or solely a bastion of anti-religion, such an enterprise would quickly become tiresome for all involved.” Pitzer press releases emphasized that students would study “various aspects of secularity from a historical, philosophical and sociological perspective,” a statement affirmed by the program’s own course descriptions. Courses that focus on the increasingly contentious debate between believers and nonbelievers make no attempt to determine “winners’ or “losers.”
Today, two years after its inception, Pitzer College’s secular studies program is thriving. Students are flocking to the program’s expanding course offerings. Zuckerman estimates that in any given semester, 75 students—about 8% of Pitzer’s 900 students—enroll in secular studies’ courses. “Secularism: Local/Global”—which looks at secular movements and church/state battles worldwide—is perhaps the program’s most popular course. Two new faculty—including Ciara Ennis, an art curator—are now affiliated with the program. And last year, William Holt became the first Pitzer graduate with a secular studies major (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-zuckerman/student-graduates-with-de_b_3750556.html)
Pitzer faculty also seem to be accepting the program. Program adviser Dr. Phil Zuckerman recently introduced himself to a seminar attended by fifteen Pitzer faculty. Zuckerman reports that “for the first time, no eyebrows were raised, no one snickered or asked me, ‘why don’t you lead us in a prayer?’”
Given these successes, Pitzer’s program, the first in the United States, has a bright future. When the secular studies program completes its probationary period in two years, it will likely become a normal part of Pitzer’s curriculum.
The program’s success might be attributed, at least in part, to students’ strong interest in the social issues addressed by the program. They are less interested in debating the existence of god. According to Zuckerman, students say “there’s no god, we know,” and immerse themselves in “social button” issues raised by the 1st amendment, such as the division between church and state, or discrimination against atheists.
Yet, the program attracts its fair share of believers. Zuckerman says that the program deepens their philosophical perspective and sharpens their sense of self. They develop a new, more nuanced concept of what it means to be a secularist.
“It’s a wonderful benefit,” Zuckerman notes.
While Pitzer’s secular studies program offers a wide variety of courses, it lacks a course in late 20th and early 21st scientific developments. Students can earn program credit for a course entitled “Monkey Business: Debates About Evolution,” taught by two Pitzer neuroscientists. But no course focuses on quantum mechanics, astronomy, scientific cosmology or any of the other “hard” sciences so corrosive to religious beliefs.
On the other hand, while acknowledging he would like such a course in the program, Zuckerman says that, during his interviews, only 25-33% of the population attribute their atheism to their knowledge of the physical sciences. Interviewees say they discovered atheism through close friends or that belief in a deity “doesn’t make sense.” Ironically, a fair number credit religious studies for their atheism.
“There is something about religious studies . . . that is potentially damaging to one’s faith,” Zuckerman says. He posited that students’ skepticism increases as they learn the historical origins of religious beliefs.
Written By: Mark Kolsen