"In everyday language, a secular person is someone who does not believe, while a secularist is someone who believes that those who believe have no reason to believe. This is not a tongue twister. Secular people do not base their worldview on revealed faith; secularists believe that any revealed faith is meaningless, except in a trivial, private sense, like a tic or a bad habit. The former does not believe, or cannot believe, but recognises that faith is a dimension of human experience that serves a purpose, such as giving meaning to life, attributing a role to humans in the world, and interpreting evil. The latter, the secularist, denies this dimension: for them, faith is an illusion or a misunderstanding or a failure of reason."
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La Stampa, 19 January 2008
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcello_Pera
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Marcello Pera
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