secularization

Meaning: Secularization is a society-level change in which religious authority and practice become less central to institutions such as government, education, law, and medicine. Classic theory ties it to modernization. Science offers non-religious explanations, institutions become differentiated (church and state separate), and rationalization, a Weber idea, favors efficiency and calculation over tradition. Common indicators are lower attendance, fewer people affiliating with a religion, and less religious control of public policy.

On the MCAT: A passage may give survey data on religious attendance across countries or decades and ask you to link the trend to modernization, urbanization, or higher education. You may be asked to place it as a macro-level process, or to contrast it with religious revival or fundamentalism as a reaction to modern change.

Common confusion: Secularization is not the same as atheism or the disappearance of belief in individuals. People can stay privately spiritual while institutions lose religious authority. It is also not uniform. Some modern societies remain highly religious, and critics of the classic theory argue that religion adapts rather than fades. The settling fact is that the term describes declining institutional influence, which is a tendency and not a universal law.