Secularism professes to be "the positive side of Atheism," and to be better than Religion at least for this world, because it pays a preeminent, if not an exclusive, regard to the _duties of the present life_.
This is, perhaps, the most dangerous aspect of the doctrine.

It prescribes a course of systematic ungodliness, a practical disregard of the future, and an engrossing attention to things seen and temporal, as if these were virtues in which mankind are greatly deficient, and as if their general prevalence would be a prelude to a secular millennium, or the commencement of an atheistic paradise.

But the purely _negative_ part of the system, however accordant with the natural tendencies of men, is felt to be in itself somewhat unattractive; it must be associated, therefore, with some _positive_ element, some _practical aims_, such as may give it a hold on the interest and a claim on the zealous support of its adherents.

"Under this conviction," says Mr.
Holyoake, "the Secularist applied himself to the reinspection of the general field of controversy, and the adoption of the following rules, among others, has been the consequence: 1.

To disuse the term _Atheist_, since the public understand by that word one who is without God and also without morality, and who wishes to be without both.2.To disuse the term _Infidel_, since Christians understand by that term one who is unfaithful or treacherous to the truth....