"Religionists and secularists are mirror images of each other who share more than they are willing to admit; each reverses but does not displace the other. Although it is not immediately obvious, both perspectives rest on the same error. Bound by the exclusive logic of either/or, each side in this conflict sees religion and secularity as irreconcilable opposites.
While choosing opposing sides, they are fighting the same battle. What neither secularists nor religionists realize is that secularity is a religious phenomenon - indeed, religion as it has developed in the West has always harbored secularity , and secularity covertly continues a religious agenda. In other words, secularity and religion are coemergent and codependent. It is, therefore, misleading to speak of a 'return of' or 'return to' religion. Religion does not return, because it never goes away; to the contrary, religion haunts society, self, and culture even - perhaps especially - when it seems to be absent. To trace the specter of religion in ostensibly secular culture, it is necessary to consider first the emergence of the Hebrew God in the spiritual milieu of the ancient Near East and then the seemingly esoteric Christian doctrines of the Incarnation and Trinity as they were formulated at the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries."
Mark C. Taylor -- After God
