Are secular societies actually secular?

Today, many people like to think that we live in a largely secular society. Whilst the Church of England is attatched to the state in Britain, it has little to no power and is largely bypassed. However, are we truly secular, or have we just one set of religious beliefs for other more material wants?

The online dictionary defines secular as the following: of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred. And in a very literal sense, society does just that. We often do most things without thinking of supernatural beings, or only go to church once a week and then forget it till the next etc. We go about our lives, dealing with earthly things, trying to do one of the four F's: feeding, fighting, fleeing and reproducing. We don't have time for God or religion in our 'civilized' culture, and as Nietzsche once exclaimed 'God is dead', which he is also. 

But in a more metaphorical sense, I think we still do have a religion, its just not doctrinally based. When you ask people what will make them happy, or what they want in life, it is usually along these lines 'I want to be rich' 'I want a job where I can buy lots of things' or 'I want that new iPhone 4, because it will be so amazing to have.' What people worship now is the material goods and status, the ability to own something, the fulfillment of possessing the latest gadgets. This has been around ever since the enlightenment, for people started to believe God could not be their source of wish fulfillment any more. So, they turn to comfort from the latest gadgets, power, wealth, which is somewhat demoralizing. 


For those of you who live in Birmingham, the Bullring is our new temple, just like the one Jesus' cleansed in the Gospels, and the Bull is our Golden Calf, a symbol of this new religion. Businesses, adverts, people, they all tell us that we should have this good and that thing, and we follow them like they are sages, believing that they can really give us peace. 


Is this really the aim of a rational, scientific minded society? Is this what they worship, status and material wealth? It seems very shallow and not very life enriching to be enslaved to such things. But even worse, as Schopenhauer demonstrated so well, wish for goods will always end in disappointment, for there will always be something better just around the corner, always more to have, and you will never be satisfied.


So what I hear you cry. Well, I just find it ironic that we live in a society with anti-religious feeling, anti-God like attitudes, and yet we worship and crave materialistic things in much the same way, like it is a substitute. Its just hypocrisy, in the open, and people should reflect on whether they are guilty of being in this quasi-religion created by the media, friends and advertisements.