Is Anyone in Canada Secular?
William Stahl, University of Regina

Is anyone in Canada secular?  Obviously yes, but exactly how many is difficult to determine.  Canada is paradoxical.  On the one hand, self-identification with a religious organization is very high and “belief” in God is even higher.  On the other hand, few Canadians attend a place of worship regularly and religion is conspicuously absent from most of public life.

In order to understand this paradox, we will very briefly

sketch the social and historical context of religion in Canada, which differs profoundly from that of the United States.  We will then present a profile of religious “dropouts” in Canada.  We will conclude by arguing that “secular” is a concept that does not describe Canada but that “disembedding,” as developed by Giddens and Taylor, describes the Canadian situation much more adequately.

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