Secular Needs The Sacred Analysis

In his article “Why the Secular Needs the Sacred,” William Kirk Kilpatrick writes a legitimate repudiation of a fallacy that conjectures that secular legal authority is a propitious substitution for religious principle. He initially propounds that insufficient morality is the result of apathy, toward religion, as opposed to an aversion. He proceeds to show that human law is ineffective unless buttressed by Devine counsel: some form of truth must be accepted as a postulate. Kilpatrick subsequently shows that without a solid moral basis, authority structures begin to deteriorate. He concludes by showing that secularism is better understood as a false religion. It is important to recognize the importance of the sacred in every part of human life, especially in the so called sacred areas.

Critical Evaluation of Work

Kilpatrick rightly deduces that religious morality is the foundation of law. In speaking of parental rights he notes that “the law never pretended to grant that authority; it was merely recognizing an existing order”(152). According to

While some certainly do maintain this attitude, many seem to be scornful toward the Devine foundation of law. One example of this contempt is an opinion piece written in the Washington Post by Garrison Keillorin which mocks Roy Moore for his belief in the utility of Devine law. (This piece was written more than a month before this same newspaper released an accusation of wrongdoing toward Moore). Keillorin’s piece is a sample of the true vitriol that many hold toward God as the source of law. Kilpatrick is wrong to assume that Americans are indifferent to divine law, when in reality many are opposed to