The starting premise of this text is a connection between a broader postmodern critique of objective scientific knowledge and the populist crisis of democracy. The author defends the idea of the secular state as a value-neutral political entity, based on the authority of objective and universal valid scientific knowledge which does not a priori recognize any religious belief or other personal conviction. As such, a secular state is an instrumental principle or pre-condition for democracy as a forum for establishing a compromise over values, and not in itself a value. The author tests this theoretical concept by looking at it through the contemporary dilemmas of secularism. The text ends with a review of open questions for the present-day secular state and potential responses.