History of atheism
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Although the term atheism originated in the 16th century, and open admission to positive atheism in modern times was not made earlier than in the late 18th century, atheistic ideas and beliefs, as well as their political influence, have a more expansive history.
The spontaneous proposition that there may be no gods after all is likely as old as theism itself (and the proposition that there may be no God as old as the beginnings of monotheism or henotheism). Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God" is one reference to the sentiment, expressed in the mid 1st millennium BC. Philosophical atheist thought appears from the 6th or 5th century BC, both in Europe and in Asia.
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[edit] Early Eastern Philosophy
In the Far East, a contemplative life not centered on the idea of gods began in the 6th century BCE with the Taoist philosopher Lao Zi and his contemporary Siddhartha Gautama, founder of Buddhism.
Despite claiming to offer a philosophic and salvific path not centering on deity worship, popular tradition in both religions has long embraced deity worship, the propitiation of spirits, and other elements of folk tradition. Furthermore, Pali Tripitaka, the oldest complete composition of scriptures seem to accept as real the concepts of divine beings, the Vedic (and other) gods, rebirth, and heaven and hell. While deities are not seen as necessary to the salvific goal of the early Buddhist tradition, their reality is not questioned.
Supernatural elements of the Buddhist tradition as later additions are generally accepted by modern philology. In fact, such view appeared as early as 18th century in Japan among scholars from Kaitokudou School (懐徳堂) which advocated version of atheism and made claim that supernatural element in ancient text of Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism and Confusiasm are fictitious exaggeration. Nakamoto Tominaga (富永仲基, 1715-1746) concluded that, among vast amount of Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, only part of Agama sutra is actual words of Siddhartha Gautama. General thrust of his argument are now supported by modern sholarship which has identified Dhammapada, the last two chapter of Sutta Nipata in Pali Tripitaka and corresponding part of Agama Sutra in Sanskrit Tripitaka as well as addition of few fragments in other scriptures to be the oldest composition. This view, often described as Daijyou Hibutu Setu (大乗非仏説-Mahayana Non Buddhism Theory) has been ongoing controversy in Japanese Buddhism.
The thoroughly materialistic and anti-religious philosophical Carvaka school that originated in India around 6th century BCE is probably the most explictly atheist school of philosophy in the region. It was advocated by Ajita Kesakambalin, whose saying is recorded in Pali scriptures by the Buddhists he was debating. [1]
- "When this was said, Ajita Kesakambalin said to me, 'Great king, there is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no priests or contemplatives who, faring rightly and practicing rightly, proclaim this world and the next after having directly known and realized it for themselves. A person is a composite of four primary elements. At death, the earth (in the body) returns to and merges with the (external) earth-substance. The fire returns to and merges with the external fire-substance. The liquid returns to and merges with the external liquid-substance. The wind returns to and merges with the external wind-substance. The sense-faculties scatter into space. Four men, with the bier as the fifth, carry the corpse. Its eulogies are sounded only as far as the charnel ground. The bones turn pigeon-colored. The offerings end in ashes. Generosity is taught by idiots. The words of those who speak of existence after death are false, empty chatter. With the break-up of the body, the wise and the foolish alike are annihilated, destroyed. They do not exist after death.'
[edit] Classical Greece and Rome
In western Classical Antiquity, theism was the fundamental belief that supported the divine right of the State (Polis, later the Roman Empire). Historically, any person who did not believe in any deity supported by the State was fair game to accusations of atheism, a capital crime.
Diagoras of Melos (5th century BC) is known as the "first atheist". He blasphemed by making public the Eleusinian Mysteries and discouraging people from being initiated.[2]
For political reasons, Socrates in Athens (399 BCE) was accused of being 'atheos' ("refusing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the state"). Despite the charges, he claimed inspiration from a divine voice (Daimon). His dying wish that a rooster be sacrificed to the god Asclepius is unrelated to polytheistic piety: the gesture was customary for someone who had overcome an illness, and Socrates intended to convey that by dying, he had overcome the "illness" of being alive. Christians in Rome were also considered subversive to the state religion and prosecuted as atheists. Thus, charges of atheism, meaning the subversion of religion, were often used similarly to charges of heresy and impiety — as a political tool to eliminate diversity in religion.
The oldest known expressions of atheism as we now understand it are attributed to Epicurus around 300 BCE. The aim of the Epicureans was mainly to attain peace of mind by exposing fear of divine wrath as irrational. One of the most eloquent expression of Epicurean thought is Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (1st century BCE). Lucretius was not an atheist as he did believe in the existence of gods, and Epicurus was ambiguous on this topic too. However both of them certainly thought that if gods existed they were uninterested in human existence. Both of them also denied the existence of an afterlife. Perhaps they are better described as materialists than atheists. Epicureans were not persecuted, but their teachings were controversial, and were harshly attacked by the mainstream schools of Stoicism and Neoplatonism. The movement remained marginal, and gradually died out at the end of the Roman Empire, until it was revived by Pierre Gassendi in the 17th century. During the late Roman Empire, atheism — a capital crime — was a common legal prosecution against Christians by henotheists. Christians rejected the Roman gods, and henotheists rejected the exclusivity of Christian monotheism.
[edit] The Middle Ages
In the European Middle Ages people were persecuted for heresy, especially in countries where the Inquisition was active. Medieval impiety and godlessness were closer to weak atheism than avowed strong atheism (see below), and hardly any expression of strong atheism is known from this period. The term 'Epicurean' was essentially a slur and had no active proponents. Saint Anselm's ontological argument at least seems to acknowledge the validity of the question about god's existence. Pope Boniface VIII, while emphatically insisting on the political supremacy of the church, held some clearly atheist positions, like "The Christian religion is a human invention like the faith of the Jews and the Arabs" or "The dead will rise just as little as my horse which died yesterday". Medieval beliefs that most closely approach strong atheism were probably held by some members of the pantheistic Brethren of the Free Spirit. A man called Löffler, who was burned in Bern in 1375 for confessing adherence to this movement, is reported to have taunted his executioners that they would not have enough wood to burn "Chance, which rules the world". Contemporaneously, in India the Carvaka school of philosophy, which continued until the fourteenth century, was openly atheistic and empirical.
[edit] The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Age of Enlightenment
During the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation, criticism of the religious establishment started to become more frequent, but did not amount to actual atheism. The dissidents also turned against each other: John Calvin narrowly escaped being burned by Lutherans in 1532, and himself approved of the burning of the Unitarian Christian Michael Servetus in 1553.
The term athéisme itself was coined in France in the 16th century, and was initially used as an accusation against scientists, critics of religion, materialistic philosophers, deists, and others who seemed to represent a threat to established beliefs. The charge was almost invariably denied. Thus, the concept of atheism re-emerged initially as a reaction to the intellectual and religious turmoil of the Age of Enlightenment and the Reformation — as a charge used by those who saw the denial of god and godlessness in the controversial positions being put forward by others. How dangerous it was to be accused of being an atheist at this time is illustrated by the fact that in 1766, the French nobleman Jean-François de la Barre, was tortured, beheaded, and his body burned for alleged vandalism of a crucifix, a case that became celebrated because Voltaire tried unsuccessfully to have the sentence reversed.
Among those accused of atheism was Denis Diderot (1713–1784), one of the Enlightenment's most prominent philosophes, and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopédie, which sought to challenge religious, particularly Catholic, dogma: "Reason is to the estimation of the philosophe what grace is to the Christian", he wrote. "Grace determines the Christian's action; reason the philosophe's".[3] Diderot was briefly imprisoned for his writing, some of which was banned and burned.
The English materialist philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was also accused of atheism, but he denied it. His theism was unusual, in that he held god to be material. Even earlier, the British playwright and poet, Christopher Marlowe (1563–1593), was accused of atheism when a tract denying the divinity of Christ was found in his home. Before he could finish defending himself against the charge, Marlowe was murdered, although this was not related to the religious issue.
[edit] The Modern Period
By the 1770s, atheism was ceasing to be a dangerous accusation that required denial, and was evolving into a position openly avowed by some. The first open denial of the existence of god and avowal of atheism since classical times may be that of Paul Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789) in his 1770 work, The System of Nature. D'Holbach was a Parisian social figure who conducted a famous salon widely attended by many intellectual notables of the day, including Diderot, Jean Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Benjamin Franklin. Nevertheless, his book was published under a pseudonym, and was banned and publicly burned by the Executioner.
The pamphlet Answer to Dr Priestley's Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever (1782) is considered to be the first published declaration of atheism in Britain — plausibly the first in English (as distinct from covert or cryptically atheist works). The otherwise unknown 'William Hammon' (possibly a pseudonym) signed the preface and postscript as editor of the work, and the anonymous main text is attributed to Matthew Turner (d. 1788?), a Liverpool physician who may have known Priestley. Historian of atheism David Berman has argued strongly for Turner's authorship, but also suggested that there may have been two authors (see Berman 1988, Chapter 5).
Afterward, the French Revolution of 1789 catapulted atheistic thought into political notability, and opened the way for the 19th century movements of Rationalism, Freethought, and Liberalism. An early atheistic influence in Germany was The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872). He influenced other German 19th century atheistic thinkers like Karl Marx, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900).
The freethinker Charles Bradlaugh (1833–1891) was repeatedly elected to the British Parliament, but was not allowed to take his seat after his request to affirm rather than take the religious oath was turned down (he offered to take the oath, but this too was denied him). After Bradlaugh was re-elected for the fourth time, a new Speaker allowed Bradlaugh to take the oath and permitted no objections: he became the first outspoken atheist to sit in Parliament, where he participated in amending the Oaths Act. In many countries, denying god was included as a crime of blasphemy. In several countries, such as Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, these laws remain [citation needed]. Likewise, some American states, such as Massachusetts, retain such laws; however, these laws are rarely enforced, if at all.
In 1844, Karl Marx (1818–1883), an atheistic political economist, wrote in his Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right:
- "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.[4]
Marx believed that people turn to religion in order to dull the pain caused by the reality of social situations; that is, Marx suggests religion is an attempt at transcending the material state of affairs in a society — the pain of class oppression — by effectively creating a dream world, rendering the religious believer amenable to social control and exploitation in this world while they hope for relief and justice in life after death. In the same essay, Marx states, "...[m]an creates religion, religion does not create man..."
Friedrich Nietzsche, a prominent 19th century philosopher, is well-known for coining the aphorism "God is dead" (German: "Gott ist tot"); incidentally the phrase was not spoken by Nietzsche directly, but was used as a dialogue for the characters in his works. Nietzsche argued that Christian theism as a belief system had been a moral foundation of the Western world, and that the rejection and collapse of this foundation as a result of modern thinking (the death of God) would naturally cause a rise in nihilism or the lack of values. While Nietzsche was staunchly atheist, he was also concerned about the negative effects of nihilism on humanity. As such, he called for a re-evaluation of old values and a creation of new ones, hoping that in doing so man would achieve a higher state he labeled the Overman.
[edit] The 20th Century
State support of atheism and opposition to organized religion was made policy in all communist states, including the People's Republic of China[5] and the former Soviet Union. In theory and in practice these states were secular. The justifications given for the social and political sidelining of religious organizations addressed, on one hand, the "irrationality" of religious belief, and on the other the "parasitical" nature of the relationship between the church and the population. Churches were sometimes tolerated, but subject to strict control - church officials had to be vetted by the state, while attendance of church functions could endanger one's career. Very often, the state's opposition to religion took more violent forms ; Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn documents widespread persecution, imprisonments and torture of believers, in his seminal work The Gulag Archipelago. Consequently, religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, were among the most stringent opponents of communist regimes. In some cases, the initial strict measures of control and opposition to religious activity were gradually relaxed in communist states. On the other hand, Albania under Enver Hoxha became, in 1967, the first (and to date only) formally declared atheist state. Hoxha went far beyond what most other countries had attempted and completely prohibited religious observance, systematically repressing and persecuting adherents. The right to religious practice was restored in 1990.
During the Cold War, the United States often characterized its opponents as "Godless Communists",[6] which tended to reinforce the view that atheists were unreliable and unpatriotic. In the 1988 U.S. presidential campaign, Republican presidential candidate George H. W. Bush said, "I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God."[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Elements of Atheism in Hindu Thought. AGORA. Retrieved on 2006-06-26.
- ^ Walter Burkert, Homo necans, p. 278
- ^ http://www.pinzler.com/ushistory/diderotsupp.html
- ^ http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm
- ^ http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1999/1/21_1.html
- ^ http://www3.niu.edu/univ_press/books/257-5.htm
- ^ http://www.robsherman.com/information/liberalnews/2002/0303.htm
- Armstrong, K. (1999). A History of God. London: Vintage. ISBN 0-09-927367-5
- Berman, D. (1990). A History of Atheism in Britain: from Hobbes to Russell. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04727-7
- Buckley, M. J. (1987). At the origins of modern atheism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Drachmann, A. B. (1922). Atheism in Pagan Antiquity. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1977 ("an unchanged reprint of the 1922 edition"). ISBN 0-89005-201-8
- McGrath, A. (2005). The Twilight of Atheism : The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. ISBN 0-385-50062-9
- Thrower, James (1971). A Short History of Western Atheism. London: Pemberton. ISBN 0-310-71101-1.
