Characteristics and consequences

If it is possible to understand religion without a reliable authority, eclecticism arises, which allows for any type of understanding and interpreting of religion. Eclecticism is mixing two or several things of various natures, and religious eclecticism means mixing religious and non-religious teachings, as a result of which, things other than religion itself becomes the criterion for measuring religiosity and any interpretation of religion becomes possible. Pure religiosity is in sharp contrast with eclecticism. Two examples of religious eclecticism are religious-liberal and religious-Marxist currents occurring in recent decades in Iran. They have results in so many deviations in political, social, cultural and epistemological areas. The most important result was the rise of secularism within the body of Islamic thinking. Religious-secularists put religion on trial, gave religious teachings a secular interpretation, separated state from religion, negated the doctrine of ejtehad, and interpreted the values as being relative. Secularism was thus for certain Muslims a retreat from Islamic values and principles and a means through which secular changes were introduced in all areas of life.