Dangerous Atheists?

Are atheists dangerous? Often, the implication is that they are.

Most of the atheists I have known (and admittedly my sample size is small) are pretty mellow and quiet about it. Maybe they fear judgment or being ostracized for their lack of belief. And maybe this is changing as unbelief becomes more acceptable.

I also wonder, based only on personal experience, if many atheists are a bit quiet about it because they themselves feel a little uncertain, restless, rather reticent. I’d call them “lost souls”–more in the psychological than theological sense. And I appreciate this about them in the same way I appreciate believers’ modesty. Some could contend these quiet atheists are actually more agnostic than atheist, although as in other matters, I’ll let people label themselves.

I should add that most of the atheists I have known are pretty okay people. Not noticeably worse or better than the rest of us. This is why I’ve never felt especially threatened by them–not needing to disparage either their lack of faith or any supposed lack of morals. 

Of course, there are also strident, “fundamentalist” atheists–the sort who need to disprove and attack. We’ve had some celebrity atheists in the past couple decades and some classic atheists over the millennia. Generally, I find them as unpleasant as pushy believers. It’s these flamboyant atheists that often bring to mind the psalmist’s claim, “The fool says in his heart, there is no god.” 

Believers and traditionalists of all sorts have long feared increasing atheism, and with it, they claim, a decline in morality. And perhaps, not without some cause. Whenever Christianity is rightfully denounced for the Crusades, the Doctrine of Discovery, slavery, witch hunts, and too many other atrocities, it doesn’t hurt to point out that Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot don’t make atheism look especially attractive. 

Still, so many attacks on atheists, often by Christians, have been ridiculous. Lurid tales and convoluted conspiracy theories. Deceitful and devious. Grisly sexual and dietary practices. Corrupting youth. Cold-hearted nihilism. Atheists on the political left (and generally atheists have been presumed to lean left) have long been easy boogeymen assumed to be foisting their wickedness on every aspect of society.

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A colleague recently shared an article, “The Right Without Wrong” from the journal Jacobin. Not familiar with Jacobin? I was only vaguely aware of it. I discovered that it is called a voice of “democratic socialism” and “contemporary Marxism,” lauded by Noam Chomsky. So you might want to consider the source. The article’s author, Dustin Guastella, is a leader in the Teamsters union.

It is an engaging and somewhat terrifying read.

Its gist is the growth of a menacing atheist faction of the Republican Party. It argues that the “hard right’s rejection of Christianity is not only a rejection of certain Christian virtues but the dismissal of a deeper understanding of humanity.” Alongside, there is the irony of a left-wing publication lamenting the loss of Christian influence in American public life. 

Most of us, I trust, have become aware of how MAGA is redefining the term evangelical. It’s much less about a high regard for Scripture or a memorable born-again experience. Instead, its keystone is support for the MAGA agenda. People who rarely or never attend worship and have almost no familiarity with the Bible now identify as evangelical. 

The chart from Ryan Burge, below, shows how the Republican Party’s growth in the past 16 years is the greatest among those who seldom or never attend church. Look especially at the lower left corner of the chart.

None of this says these people are atheists. However, the co-opting of a Christian term by a movement with only a passing familiarity with Christianity seems a disconcerting cultural indicator. And certainly for Christians, things done in our name have to be of great concern. 

The rapid growth of religious “nones” in American society is another familiar trend. While the story of white Christians’ overwhelming support for MAGA receives the spotlight, the increase of nones across all segments of society makes it no surprise that nones are also increasing among Republicans. In fact, Guastella contends, “the rise of the nonreligious right is the story of the Trump coalition.”

Far more troubling than Republican nones is the apparent growth and influence of a sneering, hateful atheist contingent in the Republican Party. The Jacobin article contends that as Christianity wanes, it is being replaced by a more intense, crueler, colder conservatism. Think Nietzche and Ayn Rand and worse. Overt racism, monstrous misogyny, creepy eugenics, ruthless competition, gleeful materialism, the exaltation of violence. It is the unvarnished dismissal of ideals like human equality, decency, peace, and respect for life as nothing more than quaint and burdensome etiquette. It’s the old “soft-hearted Christianity ruined the noble, hard-nosed virtues of ancient Rome” argument still alive and throbbing.

It is also fascinating to see Jacobin noting with distress, the vanishing of Christian virtues such as egalitarianism, universalism, compassion, and love. Saint Paul and Aquinas are celebrated here as leading lights of civilization. “Without Christianity, ultraconservatism inevitably veers into the darkest corners of violent, naturalistic chauvinism.” 

If my summary isn’t frightening or sickening enough, try the entire article. And that it squares with my own observations of MAGA-world makes it land pretty squarely. The article, in many ways, pulls together lots of threads and pieces we’ve seen but haven’t been able to tie together.

And yet. . .recalling how left-wing atheists have been smeared for generations as immoral and dangerous by the right-wing, causes me to wonder, just a little bit, if this might be only a mirror image of the same sort of alarmist distortion. 

I’m worried we’ll find out all too soon. 

Header photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash