Atheist History in the United States
Syllabus
The class will consist of an hour lecture, followed by a 20 minute question and answer period. An open discussion of the topic will follow, of approximately ½ hour to an hour. The Lecture portion is not open to interruption. Members are encouraged to take notes and bring up pertinent questions during the Question and Answer portion and during the Discussion.
This Lecture will be divided into two Sections:
Atheist History from classical times to the present, and Atheist History in America from colonial times until the present day.
Atheist History from classical times to the present.
Theories that there was not the concept of atheism as we define it currently until the late 1700’s, and the biased historians who influenced such thinking. Atheism’s probable beginning in the Ionia of ancient Greece in the 6th Century BCE. Thales and other philosophers. Their philosophy was more naturalistic than atheistic.
Democritus in 5th Century Greece and his atomic theory.
Post classical ameliorating philosophies in Greece and the Roman Empire: stoicism, epicureanism, and the great skeptic, Sextus Empiricus. Middle Ages produced mainly Christian philosophy, with Thomas Aquinas borrowing from Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. Dons Scotus and Ockham’s theology put theology dependent on faith and weakened it.
Renaissance- 15th, 16th, 17th Century Europe.
The Padua School, known for atheism. Machiavelli, Montaigne, texts from Aristotle widely known, Lucretius becoming known among the educated classes. Emphasis shifting from religious salvation to man’s flourishing in the natural world. An explosion of classical thinking. There were scientists such as Galileo and Bacon whose work helped promote knowledge and doubt among the scholarly.
Enlightenment- 18th Century
Three important principles: rights of the individual, reason, and relativity. Newtonian gravity and other sciences opening the doors of free inquiry. Diderot and the Encyclopedia, Baron D’Holbach and his openly atheist text, as well as La Mettrie’s posthumously published atheist work. Hobbes and his theory of the social contract. Hume and his skepticism. In England, the atheist tract in 1782, Answer to Dr. Priestley’s Letter, probably composed by Matthew Turner and a friend.
The explosion of science and the doubt filled thought of the 19th and 20th Centuries:
Darwin’s Origin of Species, 1859, Einstein and relativity, quantum theory and the onset of uncertainty. The British Romantic poets questions and Shelley the atheist. Matthew Arnold. Dover Beach. Feuerbach the atheist author, Marx the socialist, Nietzsche and the death of god. English Ppolitics and Charles Bradlaugh. Existentialist philosophy and Jean Paul Sartre. Sigmund Freud and atheism- Future of an Illusion. The Logical positivists and A.J. Ayer’s atheism. Bertrand Russell’s Why I am not A Christian. 1927.
Atheism in American history from colonial times until the present.
Overstated history of Christian history of colonial America. Most colony leaders, governors favored a deistic Protestantism. The Founders of the United States, such as Jefferson and Madison, deists and freethinkers. Ethan Allen’s Reason, 1787 and the widely read Age of Reason by Thomas Paine in 1795. Utopian colony leaders and publishers Fanny Wright and Richard Owen.
Influx and influence of the German freethinkers around 1848.
Golden Age of Free thought and Robert Ingersoll, the Great Agnostic. 1870’s to about the beginning of World War I. Science undermines religion, as well as critical biblical studies: Charles Lyell in geology, Darwin and Huxley in biology. The resurgence of free thought in the 1920’s- Clarence Darrow and Haldeman Julius’s Little Blue Books. Some famous atheist leaders and organizations: Charles Lee Smith, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, American Atheists, Center for Inquiry, Freedom from Religion and more. The Murray vs Curlett Case and the victory for free thought. Increase in critical biblical studies, decline in church attendance in America, scientific explosion. New resurgence of free thought in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.
(TEXT) History of Unbelief in the United States
Before turning to the history of
free thought, agnosticism and atheism in the United States, the Preface will
glance at the early religious practices of colonial America. The ordinary Anglican American parish was
between 60 and 100 miles of sparsely populated territory. Clergymen were scarce, and women made up less
than one fourth of the population.
Religious life was haphazard and irregular for most citizens. Even in Boston, which was more highly
populated and dominated by the Congregational Church, one inhabitant
complained, in 1632, that “fellows which keepe hogges all weeke preach on the
Sabbath.”
By the 1730’s and 1740’s, the
English Evangelical, George Whitefield, and the American preacher, Jonathan
Edwards, began the American “Great Awakening,” or born again religion, focusing
on emotion rather than reason. The Great Awakening and its impact have been
overemphasized, however. American
historians have found that by the end of the Colonial Period, Protestant Rationalism
remained the dominant religious force among the leaders of most Colonies. “The similarity of belief among the educated
gentry in all colonies is notable… {There} seems to be evidence that some form
of Rationalism- Unitarian, deist or otherwise- was often present in the
religion of gentlemen leaders by the late Colonial period.” This Protestant Rationalism emphasized ethics
and discarded superstition. At the same time, many Americans came to believe that
no human institution, religious or civil, could claim divine authority. There was an interesting political turn to
such thinking. By 1760, many American rationalists
began attacking English domination on several issues. One of their grievances
was that England intervened in the Colonies’ religious life. They denied England’s claim that the King of
England ruled over them by divine inspiration or right.
Freethought has been a robust and
resilient strand existing in America from colonial times to the present. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both
favored religious or ethical thought found in nature rather than in “revealed
religion,” i.e. the Bible. Many of the
Founding Fathers of our nation were Deists.
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Paine and
Benjamin Franklin were all Deists. James Madison was somewhat further along- he
may have been an Atheist. Jefferson and Madison were extremely instrumental in writing
the principle of separation of Church and State into the Constitution. (See
Atheism and the Law.) The American Founders were influenced by the European Enlightenment,
and many of the thinkers of that Continental movement were Deists, with some
embracing Atheism. The question of the Founders’ belief, or lack
thereof, has created a “vexing problem for twentieth century religious and
social conservatives intent on simultaneously enshrining the Founding Fathers
and denying their intention to establish a secular government.”
In 1787, Ethan Allen, a
Revolutionary War hero, wrote the first Deist and anti-Christian book published
in North America. Deist literature had
previously been imported from England.
Allen’s volume was entitled Reason:
The Only Oracle of Man. It did not receive a great deal of attention, as it
was not particularly well written. Thomas
Paine’s great book, Age of Reason
(1795), well written, stirring and convincing, was very influential in the
dissemination of Freethought in the United States. Although Deist in
philosophy, the volume attacked the core of Christian beliefs and encouraged
many people to abandon Christianity.
After Paine’s death, Deism waned.
Deist activity resumed about
1825, with a large party to celebrate Paine’s birthday. The emphasis going forward for Deism in
America was in reaching out to the working classes. Fanny Wright and Richard Owen, who had
established the Utopian colony of New Harmony, Indiana, moved to New York to
begin the publication of the Free
Inquirer in 1829. In 1848, the
German democratic revolution failed, and thousands of politically and
religiously liberal Germans fled to the United States. The “Forty Eighters”
settled from Minnesota all the way to Texas.
They published the Friend of Light,
an anti -clerical and abolitionist tract, as well as many more anti-religious
publications. They also established halls and health clubs, with freethought
emphasized, in the areas where they settled.
The Freethought movement extended into the East at this period.
From roughly 1860 to 1900,
America entered what is known as The Golden Age of Freethought, a high point of
the secular movement in the United States.
The most prominent name in a group of eminent secular thinkers was
Robert Ingersoll, the eloquent orator and attorney, called “The Great
Agnostic.” Darwin’s Origin of Species had
been published in 1859, and science was beginning to be accepted as an
explanation for phenomena that had once been explainable only in religious
terms. People found entertainment and education in
attending large public lectures at that period in American history. Many freethinkers were on the lecture
circuit, but none were as popular as Ingersoll, who had been influenced by
Epicurus, the Greek Hellenistic Philosopher. (See Atheist History.) Ingersoll considered god’s existence
unknowable, Christian doctrine ridiculous and the concept of eternal punishment
morally reprehensible. He was ahead of his time, advocating equality
for blacks and women, better prison conditions and many other progressive
concepts. Ingersoll also went to law for
Freethought causes.
The same period of the Golden Age
saw a large array of Freethought periodicals, such as The Truth Seeker, and titles
from J. P. Mendum Company and other publishers. Many organizations began to
spring up, such as the National Liberal League and the New York Freethinkers
Association. Prominent Americans, such
as Thomas Edison, Luther Burbank and Andrew Carnegie, identified themselves as
Freethinkers during the era. Many distinguished women were active in Freethought,
such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, who
influenced her son-in-law, Frank L. Baum, of Wizard of Oz fame. (See Atheist
Films.)
Biblical Criticism had begun to
be taken seriously, and scientific works began to be well known. Charles Lyell was a geologist who refuted
Genesis in his Principles of Geology
(1830.) His work was an influence on
Darwin, who published Origin of Species
in 1859. Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin’s proponent, published Man’s Place in Nature in 1863. There were many other works by scientists and
freethinkers which helped with the spread of secularism in the United States
during The Golden Age. (See The New
Encyclopedia of Unbelief, cited below.)
Ingersoll died in 1899, and he
had unfortunately not established an organization to carry on his successful
work. The Golden Age was waning, as well, around the time of his demise. Ingersoll’s thirteen volume Collected Works remained in print until
1929, but the Golden Age had ended. As Tom Flynn points out, Freethought had
entered the American mainstream and no longer had the radical cache’ it was
once imbued with.
Flynn maintains that many educated Americans in the new century were
irreligious by default, “knowing the Earth was old, the Bible written over time,
and that species had evolved.”
By the second decade of the 20th
Century, freethinking ignited once again.
Conservative Christians had employed the word, Atheist, to disparage non
believers, but around 1920, American freethinkers began to take over the designation
of Atheist to proudly characterize themselves.
For some notable citizens, such as Clarence Darrow, it was an honorable
description. Darrow was the famous
attorney who defended teaching Evolution in United States public schools at the
Scopes “monkey” trial in 1925. He was an
outspoken Atheist, who wrote an extended disproof of god’s existence for his
autobiography in 1932. The agnostic socialist, Emanuel Haldemane-Julius, became
the most successful publisher of the Freethought movement at that period. His
company turned out the famous Little Blue Books, small paperback printings of
the Bible, Greek Classics, Voltaire, Zola and Ingersoll, among other
controversial works, for 25 cents, then 10 cents, and finally a nickel. 300 million Blue Books were printed between
1919 and 1949, at the time commercial publishers began to enter the
marketplace.
Blue Books reached people who could not
afford hardcover volumes and helped educate the general population of the
United States.
Charles Lee Smith, a lawyer,
founded the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism in 1925. His organization’s plan to found Atheist
groups in high schools foundered, however.
He debated against Creationists, was very active in the cause of
irreligion, and in 1937 purchased the Truth
Seeker, an important Freethought publication. Joseph Lewis was another famous atheist, who
became the head of the Freethinkers of America.
Lewis donated several statues of Thomas Paine to countries, and these
statues can still be seen in the United States, France and England. He was also behind the movement that brought
about the third restoration of Robert Ingersoll’s home in Dresden, New
York. Lewis successfully led the drive
to put Thomas Paine on a postage stamp.
He wrote books on irreligion as well, and was active in Freethought his
entire life. James Hervey Johnson took over the famous Truth Seeker in 1964. The
publication was not very successful, but Johnson was quite frugal and invested
well. He left an estate of some 16
million dollars, part of which went into forming a charitable trust which has
been, since the 1990’s, the largest single source of charitable support for
American unbelief.
Madalyn Murray O’Hair was the
most famous atheist of the latter part of the 20th Century. She is best known for her part in the Supreme
Court Case undertaken on behalf of her son, William Murray. The Murrays’ case, Murray v Curlett, was consolidated
with Abington Township School District v Schempp and decided in favor of the
plaintiffs on June 17, 1963. By 8-1,
under Chief Justice Hugo Black, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled
that school-sponsored Bible readings in public schools in the United States
were unconstitutional. O’Hair won a
significant victory in O’Hair v Hill (1984) which invalidated state laws that
barred atheists from state employment, jury service and public office. She
helped make sure that the statements of the astronauts for Apollo 11’s Moon
Landing in 1969 were secular, unlike the Apollo 8 landing. Her case against the
Apollo 8 reading of Genesis was still pending at the time of Apollo 11. O’Hair founded American Atheists in 1963 and
moved to Austin, Texas, where she established the organization’s headquarters
and began to edit the American Atheist
Magazine. According to the New York
Times, O’Hair’s television program, American Atheist Forum, was carried by 140
Cable TV Systems and her mailing list reached around 50,000 in the 1980’s. Ellen Johnson, a former President of American
Atheists, told the New York Times in 1997 that the group’s membership at that
time was about 2500. As of this writing, the group is based in New
Jersey, has an impressive website, a cable access show in 50 markets and
continues to publish the American Atheist Magazine. The current President is Dave Silverman.
A very effective Atheist group is
the nonprofit Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF.) It was founded by Anne
Nicole Gaylor in 1967 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, and son-in-law, Dan Barker, have
aided significantly in the success of the organization. They publish a monthly newspaper, Freethought Today, along with variety of
tracts and books. The group has won
consequential Church/State battles, particularly in the Midwest. Another group of interest is Atheists United,
based in Los Angeles, California and formed in 1982. Atheists United has an annual convention.
(See Atheist Organizations.)
In 1980, the first explicitly
secular Humanist organization formed, the Council for Democratic and Secular
Humanism (CODESH), founded by a group including Gordon Stein and philosopher
Paul Kurtz.
With this event, secular Humanism broke
away from both religious humanism and socialist intellectualism and set out on
its own ideological path. In
1980, the Council began a journal called Free
Inquiry. According to Flynn, the Council soon became the largest and most
vigorous organization of unbelief in the United States, and Free Inquiry’s circulation regularly
exceeded the combined circulation of publications of all the other humanist,
atheist, and freethought organizations. The Council and its Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) founded the
Center for Inquiry in 1995. The Council
renamed itself the Council for Secular Humanism. Ronald Lindsay is currently CEO of the
Organization.
The Preface has briefly glanced
at the History of Atheism and Freethought in the United States, and now turns
to the future of Atheism in our country.
Atheism will remain embattled in a country so invested in religious
belief as the United States, but the picture for irreligion is particularly
bright today. The publication of
significant Atheist books by Sam Harris, The
End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Failure of Reason (2004,) by Daniel
C. Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion
as a Natural Phenomenon (2007,) and by Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006,) have had
impressive sales and influenced many people concerning the validity of Atheist
claims. The activity of the various irreligious groups discussed above has
furthered the cause. The proliferation of Meetup Groups in the United States
around the label of Atheist now numbers around 524, a significant sign that
Atheists are “coming out of the closet,” and seeking the company of similarly
minded individuals. Many irreligious groups, including American Atheists and
Freedom from Religion, have sponsored billboard campaigns and bus ads that
promote Atheism. Center for Inquiry
offers online courses in various areas of unbelief and Pitzer College in
Claremont, California will be offering a Major in Secular Studies beginning in
the Fall of 2011. (See Atheist Organizations, Atheist Activism, and Atheist
Courses.)
Scientific breakthroughs continue
in the area of Biology, Physics, (See Atheist Science) and Neuroscience. (See
Atheist Psychologies) Many biblical studies and archeological findings have
cast significant doubt on the truth of most of the “sacred texts”of Christianity
and on historicity of Jesus. Some
scholars in the field are calling for an end to biblical studies unless they
are secular in nature. (See Biblical Criticism.) Many sections of the Atheist Scholar
reinforce the facts contributing to the retreat of mainstream religion in the
face of reason and science.
Church attendance is declining at
accelerated rates. Dr. Loveth Weems, Director
of the Lewes Center for Church Leadership at the Wesley Theological Center in
Washington, D.C. has discussed the drop in attendance in an article titled “No
Show,” in Christian Century in
2010. He cited the 2008 Faith
Communities Today Survey of American Congregations of all types. Dr. Weems states that the large churches have
begun a decline since 2001. The small
churches have been on a steady decline for decades, and this pace has recently
accelerated. Only churches with over 1000 members have grown slightly. The General Social Survey of 2008 shows an
aging constituency in United States church membership. About 15 to 16% of
Americans, when polled, say they have no religious affiliation, while the World
Religious Statistics Survey has found that about 14% of the World’s population is
made up of nonbelievers. (See Atheist Demographics for the United States and
around the World.)
The combined effect of such
irreligious activities-social, scientific, and intellectual- is creating a
meaningful opportunity for Atheism and Secularism to advance and gain members. Some
of our secular history has been skewed and it is difficult to tease out the
influence of Rationalism on the people of the United States. We know that our first four Presidents were
either Unitarians or Deists. We know that the ruling classes of our country
were often deist or rationalist. What do we know about the people’s belief?
Harold Laski states: “ There was indeed, far more likelihood than the evidence
permits us to affirm with certainty that, by the end of the eighteenth century,
rationalism had made a good deal of progress among the urban masses; it is not
easy, otherwise, to account for the popularity of Paine’s Age of Reason.” The
influence of religion is still inordinately strong in the United States, but
the steady encroachment of reason is having its effect, as it once did in
earlier America. Rational and skeptical
thinking is helping obliterate the miasma created by ignorance, fear and
superstition. It is to be hoped that Atheism
is on the verge of another Golden Age, and that the spirit of Ingersoll still
lives on in our culture.
Works Cited: