"IMPUDENT AND MISGUIDED SCHOLARS" PART II

And now back to the question of the proper subject of the present entry: what is atheism?

In my opinion, atheism is a frivolous system of values, which does not merit a serious philosophical study, but certainly deserves to be analyzed from other angles, such as historical, socio-political, psychological, etc. Considering that this section is devoted to Religion, the next question is whether atheism is a form of religion, or a contrariant expression of non-religion?

To me, there is no question here, as my definition of religion binds it with unbreakable historical, cultural, and traditional ties to its host nation, or an established ethnic or social group of unquestionable legitimacy. But this question does exist for all those taxonomists of world religions who are with flippant nonchalance awarding the three top spots in the worldwide religious “standings” to Christianity at number one, Islam at number two, and Secularism/Atheism/Agnosticism at number three. (A particular reference is made here to the respectable website adherents.com, which is also the source of the quotes below.)

The authors of such surveys, which bundle together all diverse forms of Christianity, despite the fact that, historically, the Christian-on-Christian strife has been bloodier and far more intolerant and vicious (at least in the last five hundred years) than Christianity’s crusades against other religions, allot the third spot to the secularist-atheist-agnostic-nonreligious bunch with the following caveat:

“This is a highly disparate group, not a single religion. Atheists are a small subset of this grouping. People who specify atheism as their religious preference actually make up less than one-half of one percent of the population in many countries where much large numbers claim no religious preference.

Of the people in this grouping, it is estimated that 40 to 50% have a stated traditionally “theistic” belief in God or Higher Powers. A country-by-country survey was done and in most countries only a tiny number of people will answer atheist when asked an open-ended question about their religious preference. A slightly larger number of people will say yes if asked pointedly if they are an atheist. A slightly larger number will answer no when asked if they believe in God, deities or Higher Power. A slightly larger number answer no when asked simply if they believe in God (omitting more nebulous, less anthropomorphic conceptions of divinity). Finally, a larger number of people answer none when asked about their religious preference. But at the same time, half of those who identify themselves as nonreligious answer yes when asked if they still believe in God or a Higher Power.”

But there is an even greater flaw in these statistical attempts to come up with any meaningful figure on the number of atheists in the world.

“Most current estimates of the world number of secular/nonreligious/agnostic/atheist/etc. are between eight hundred million and one billion. Estimates for atheism alone (as primary religious preference) range from 200 to 240 million. But these come primarily from China and the former Soviet Union nations, especially from Russia. Prior to Communist takeovers of these regions and government attempts to eradicate religion in both places, there were very high levels of affiliation with organized religions (especially, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Taoism), as well as high levels of participation and belief in local traditions, such as shamanism, ancestor ceremonies, spiritism, etc. Since the fall of Communism in the former Soviet nations and the relaxation of anti-religious policies in China, religious affiliation has increased dramatically.”

There is, perhaps, only one area of such statistical study where the figures have at least some meaning, even though they reveal the already obvious truth:

“In the Western world, Europe is by far the place with the most self-avowed atheists and agnostics, with the nonreligious proportion of the population particularly high in Scandinavia. The Encyclopedia Britannica reports approximately 41 million atheists in Europe. The self-described nonreligious segment of society in Australia and New Zealand is also high.

All those who profess religious belief are not necessarily registered members of a church or denomination, but in the United States the majority of professed Christians and adherents of other religions are officially affiliated with an organization.”

This is perhaps a reflection of the fact that in Western Europe, in particular, church attendance is no longer associated with social clout, power and prestige. There is another important consideration here as well. Socialist nations of the free world offer their populations a variety of alternative support systems, as opposed to the United States, for instance, where the capitalist system restricts people’s access to such support systems, making the church by far the most important of them, in so far as the middle class is concerned, and therefore, boosting the numbers of church attendance as well as those of personal religious identification. I think that American Protestant churches, especially the Evangelical community, are strongly anti-socialist precisely on this account: they see socialism as a rival to religion. Moreover, I suspect that their objection to socialism is not purely political, but paradoxically ethical. In my opinion, supported by experience, they sincerely believe that social services and welfare programs advanced by the government make people less interested in churches and religion, and therefore drive them away from God.

I am uncomfortable with such a treatment of socialism, but I confess that this argument has a valid point. Atheism and secular socialism may indeed have something in common, at the expense of religion.