Why is Europe so secular?

(9:46 AM PST) - This morning while working out at the gym I was listening to chapter 12 of The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White. This chapter was recounting part of the Reformation history that sweep Europe. The Reformation impacted every country and everyone even little countries like Sweden were specifically mentioned. This got me thinking. As I continued listening I couldn't help but wonder, why is Europe so secular today?

I think it is safe to say that Europe is the mother of modern day western Christianity. Whether this is positive or negative, good or bad those who espouse Christianity today must necessarily trace their faith heritage through the world of European Christian culture (this is not to say that it started or stops there).

So why is Europe so secular today? Why have they lost their religious Christian faith heritage? Is it because Christianity doesn't work? Is it because they have found something better? What factors played a role in the dismantling of Christianity in Europe?

What can we or should we learn from this historical record? Has modern day Christianity been attacked and weakened by similar factors that caused Christianity to crumble in Europe? What were the obvious factors? Were some factors more philosophical and subtle than others?

I recently attended a lecture at Regent College in Vancouver, BC on the Campus of the University of British Columbia dealing with Secularism & Postmodernism. The presentation by Prof. John Stackhouse was very provocative and overall very good. At the beginning of his presentation he carefully defined secularism and it's various derivatives as follows:

- Secular: something common “of the world”
- Secularization: a process of something sacred becoming profane (or ordinary)
- Secularity: a condition (no concern or care for religious things---this condition does not have to infer negativity
towards Christians)
- Secularism: an ideology (this term by definition includes a negativity towards Christianity)

In partial response to my own question, why is Europe so secular? I wonder if it "secularization" played a role. It had to of in some capacity or another, but maybe it played a significant role in a more subtle way.

And maybe as followers of Christ today we are faced with this same subtle attack of secularization. I don't know I'm just thinking out loud...and the thinking continues.

(10:45 PM - PST)