Secular Needs The Sacred Analysis

Summary of Major Ideas In his article, “Why the Secular Needs the Sacred,” William Kirk Kilpatrick accurately discusses the need for the sacred view of life. Kilpatrick says that the world tries to get along without religion, and shows how it does not work. Society has no good person or supreme being to turn to if not God because of all the different opinions flawed man has of what is right and wrong. People turn to a business agreement to try to explain authority even though the point of authority is always changing. Without standards, people cannot agree on a specific age of accountability; therefore, children are being treated like adults. By pointing these things out, Kilpatrick gets society thinking if the secular need the sacred.

Critical Evaluation of Work

Kilpatrick answers this when he says, “But the truth is the profane can’t get along very well without the sacred” (Pg 151). This shows that humanity needs God and his righteousness to determine morality. Throughout history, society always works better when the people are focused on God; look at colonial America. The best man can do is create a business agreement for authority. The author says that society has rejected the standards that come from God and is struggling to figure out who or what to turn to next.

Although Kilpatrick identifies that there are different consequences for sin, he fails to explain that God holds all sin to the same standard. Kilpatrick states, “Why else, for example, would the penalty for rape be so much more severe than that for other types of assault” (15). Society handles sin differently depending on which sin is committed. The bible says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murder” (1 John 3:15). God says that hate is equal to murder. In God’s eyes, no sin is greater than another. Kilpatrick explains how the secular charge every sin differently, but society cannot forget that God does