As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen
Becoming more religious has helped me identify religious tendencies in the secular world. Ideology doesn’t imply supernatural deities, and some worldly phenomenon can be elevated to a supernatural level.  Secular belief contains rituals, origin stories, deities, saints, priesthood, blasphemy, vice &amp; virtue just as religion does.<p>One aspect of religion I appreciate is that these aspects are well codified and debated – i.e. much more explicit.<p>In the secular world these aspects exist but they are implicit, making them difficult to debate and attack.<p>Few people understand that most religions e.g. Judaism and Christianity have an apologetic discipline – a deliberate arm open to debate.<p>The secular world would benefit from adopting more formal definitions of their belief system. I think that would reduce the conflict and neurosis that comes from engaging a nebulous system.<p>If you believe you are not religious, it just means that you don’t have the cognitive tools to recognize the secular ideology that you have adopted.