Where are the atheist civilizations?

Where are the great atheist civilizations?

I have had numerous online discussions with atheists who take issue with my arguments about Christian civilization. They always criticize me for crediting Christianity for its many accomplishments. But one thing they never do—argue the superiority of atheist civilizations.

It’s hard to compare Christian civilization with atheist civilizations since there has never been an atheist civilization. Great or otherwise. I guess the closest you get would be the Marxist attempts of the past 100 years. There are more than you think. Twenty or so in Eastern Europe, another twenty or so in Africa, and several in Asia and Latin America. History is sprinkled with a few short-lived communist governments. None lasted more than a hundred years, most less than fifty. There are only a handful left—China( sort of), North Korea, Cuba(barely hanging on), maybe Laos, Vietnam, and Venezuela.

It's perfectly fair to judge atheism on this question because it was Marx’s intention to build a civilization. Not just a great one, a perfect one—a utopian state. It would not be local—it would be universal. He foretold the whole world as communist and atheist and some Marxists still believe this radical eschatology. He argued that its formation was inevitable—a scientific certainty. 

But the next Marxist civilization will be the first. Instead of utopia you get a dystopian house of horrors, the worst governments in the history of the world.

With Christianity you get the best culture in the history of the world. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best.

Why can’t atheists build a civilization?

First, they start with the problem that there aren’t very many atheists. According to Ryan Burge the number of atheists, including agnostics, in the U.S. is around 10% and has been that way for a long time. Pew Research numbers show that other Western nations are similar although some European countries have a slightly larger number of atheists than the U.S. But nowhere near a majority. And these atheists all live in countries where the blessings they enjoy were created by Christian civilization. There is no example in history in which a group of atheists went to a pioneer area and built a culture.

Second, they have no ability to positively affect individual behavior. The British atheist, Matthew Parris, said: “Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good….The Christians are always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appears to have liberated and relaxed them. There is a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life.” In other words, Jesus Christ transforms your life in a wonderful, glorious way. Atheism does not do this.

Third, to build a civilization you have to have some moral glue to enable its citizens to get along with each other. The atheists they have no basis for morality. Frank DeVito writing in First Things says: “The problems that plague our society are at heart religious problems. If man does not know what he is, why he exists, what he is made for, or what he is doing on this earth, then he has little chance of getting any of the other questions right…. Without putting God and religion at the heart of the discussion, how can man be good? How can he even articulate what it means to be good?”

Atheists don’t believe in the image of God in man—the sanctity of life. Therefore they have no rationale for human rights, equality, social justice, or ministries of compassion. Tom Holland has a fascinating story about Julian the Apostate, the fourth-century Roman ruler who wanted to eradicate Christianity and restore paganism as the religion of the empire. But in order to do that Julian had to replicate Christianity’s compassion for the poor. How do you get pagans to do that? Holland says Julian discovered that to replace Christianity you basically had to replace it with…Christianity. Christian social teaching is so powerful it is virtually impossible to get rid of. People like Nietzsche and the Nazis tried but failed. Even unbelieving American liberals and conservatives admit that Christian compassion is a good thing.

Fourth, atheists do not sacrifice for their beliefs. In other words, they have a very low commitment to their ideals. I have gotten into fierce online debates over my observation that when I travel in Asia I never see any Marxist orphanages. I never see any Charles Darwin Memorial hospitals. No Vladimir Lenin or Joseph Stalin schools. Atheists have responded by telling me that they aren’t helping Asians because they are so committed to helping people at home. But I don’t see any helping institutions at home run by atheists. Other atheists have said they are just as compassionate as Christians but they don’t brag about it. They keep it a secret. Right. Really secret.

Fifth, Atheists are simply more self-serving than Christians and it takes a certain degree of unselfishness to build a civilization. It’s interesting to read Ryan Burge’s stats on religion and children. Christians have about twice as many kids as atheists. Having a child in this day and age takes a certain degree of unselfishness and religious commitment. Jonathan Last said that when you see a family with three or more children they are making a theological statement. They are showing their Christian commitment. Atheists simply don’t have that level of commitment and you can’t build a civilization without it. The Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in 1620 primarily for one reason. They wanted the freedom to homeschool their children. They paid a terrible price for their commitment. Half of them died the first winter. But they persevered. And they built the richest, freest, and most powerful civilization in world history.

I have given five reasons atheists don’t build a civilization and I am sure there are more. I want to give glory to the God of Scripture and His Son, Jesus Christ, who have raised up millions of believers to build the glorious culture we live in. Praise be to His holy name.

More: Atheism is a Christian heresy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmncDaOQ7OQ

An atheist admits the necessity of Christian missions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIQEDBrykPo

Frank Devito:

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/12/taking-god-seriously

Ryan Burge on atheists and children:

https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/atheists-just-dont-have-many-kids

Pew research findings on atheism:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/07/8-facts-about-atheists/

Carl Trueman:

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2023/07/in-our-chaotic-age-some-atheists-are-rethinking-secularism

Non-religious people, too, are starting to have doubts about the ability of the Western secular mind to sustain civilization, as a recent essay by Konstantin Kisin indicates. Kisin, host of the popular dissident podcast Triggernometry, describes how enamored he was with the New Atheism of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens in the decade after 9/11. Now, however, he has come to identify as a “lapsed atheist,” wondering if answers to the most basic questions that societies need to operate—fundamentally, I would suggest, what it means to be human—are possible within an atheist framework.

“Is it possible to build a moral society on the basis of atheism?” [Trueman’s answer]: it was certainly a lot, lot harder than building a moral society on the basis of religion. [I would add, how would you know? It’s never been done.]

The question of God’s existence and moral order is famously raised by Ivan Karamazov in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. For Ivan, if God does not exist, then everything is permissible.

Konstantin Kisin: The reason new atheism has lost its mojo is that it has no answers to the lack of meaning and purpose that our post-Christian societies are suffering from. What will fill that void? Religious people have their answer. Do the rest of us?

Matthew Parris:

http://www.rootedinjesus.net/docs/Parris.pdf