I just wanted to complicate the story by pointing out that secular materialism is not new!
All the ingredients are there in the philosophy put forward by Epicurus in 307 BC, which was widely known by the Romans and rediscovered by renaissance humanists in the 1500s (in De rerum natura).
(Epicurean tenets I have in mind are: The universe behaves according to physical laws; whether or not the Gods exist, they are not concerned with human affairs and do not intervene; there is no afterlife and yet no need to fear death.)
All the ingredients are there in the philosophy put forward by Epicurus in 307 BC, which was widely known by the Romans and rediscovered by renaissance humanists in the 1500s (in De rerum natura).
(Epicurean tenets I have in mind are: The universe behaves according to physical laws; whether or not the Gods exist, they are not concerned with human affairs and do not intervene; there is no afterlife and yet no need to fear death.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism