Secular Humanism is a Technology in Empire: Total War.
Description[]
Secular Humanism is the attempt to create a functioning society that excludes religious beliefs as a governing principle.
Secular humanists hold that things should not be taken on blind faith, and religion should be taken into consideration only for each individual and not society as a whole. Although humanists seek to remove religion from its deeply ingrained position in society, they do treat it with the same careful deliberation they apply to all their investigations. Everything is looked at in a critical, careful, and most importantly, "scientific" way.
The doctrine of secular humanism also seeks to improve society through reason, an open exchange of ideas and tolerance. If a society is built up of individuals who feel fulfilled it will function better on the whole than one which concentrates on the greater good.
Historically, the term "secularism" was invented by George Holyoake (1817- 1906) in an attempt to explain as inoffensively as possible this concept about religion and its place in society. Before that, it was termed "Owenite" after Robert Owen (1771-1858) and his trenchant opposition to organised religion. Holyoake had spent six months imprisoned for blasphemy, after expelling the concept in a public lecture.
General Information[]
Secular Humanism halves the influence of religon on a faction. Religious unrest is lowered considerably, but so is happiness granted from religious buildings. Secular Humanism benefits factions that have problems keeping order due to religious differences, but all factions benefit from researching this technology due to the increase in town wealth.
Secular Humanism allows the construction of the Royal Academy and its equivalents. This means that Spain and Prussia usually need to research this technology before building their unique cultural buildings.