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Summary Of A Suspension Of (Dis) Belief

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“A Suspension of (Dis) Belief: The Secular – Religious Binary and the Study of International Relations” by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is an intriguing chapter that questions the relations between the secular and religion. Shakman Hurd argues that most individuals have unchanging meanings of what the secular is and what religion is. Shakman Hurd states that the analysis of the secular and religion in world politics needs to be re-examined in terms of the beliefs (political and religious) that support the secular – religious binary. To clarify her argument, Shakman Hurd uses instances that have took place in world politics to address her argument. By looking at the relationships between the United States and other countries, Shakman Hurd claims that the secular-religious binary should be considered as being a concept that is …show more content…

In this critical response, I will go over the three consequences regarding secular – religious binary that the author addresses in this chapter. In the examination of world politics in association to secular – religious binary, three consequences were mentioned by the author that I found quite thought – provoking. The first consequence being that many social scientists are being trained to ignore religion and conduct their research and demonstrate their findings on the basis of only the “secular”. The next consequence mentioned was that the study of religion has a tendency to focus on presumed religious practices in addition to religion and secularism. The other consequence that I thought was fascinating was that people have particular definitions of religion that are perceived as being the “standard”. These consequences are

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