I learned on Pharyngula about a book Phil Zuckerman has written that I think everyone, the nonreligious and especially the religious should read. In Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment [amazon.com], he writes on two countries considered the least religious in the world: Denmark and Sweden.  Although religious bigots claim that atheism or secularism (which can exist in dominantly religious countries too) causes the downfall of societies, these two countries are proof that the dominance of nonreligious ideologies/philosophies does not by nature lead to societal destruction by any means.  Such contentment would not exist if the lack of religion required so.

For full disclosure, I have not read the book myself.  I intend to as soon as I can.  Zuckerman is a respected social scientist, and so far the reviews have been very promising.  I see no reason why this would not be a great addition to the evidence which overwhelming supports that religiousness is not required for a stable, happy society.  This blog is meant to speak about the bigotry the nonreligious face, while also showing that the nonreligious societies are not the evil that the bigots make them out to be.  As such, I don’t usually discuss or degrade religion itself, but in this case the elephant in the room cannot be ignored.  While it is claimed by our detractors that the lack of belief is destructive, it cannot be ignored that the lack of belief is simply a lack of belief, nothing more.  It says nothing about values or morals, the most basic of which social scientists have shown to be universal, having nothing to do with religious belief.

It is ironic for those who claim the lack of religious belief is the problem, without any historical evidence or evidence from the social sciences that backs them up, to ignore that the vast historical evidence shows religious ideology itself has given carte blanche for some of the worst atrocities ever known.  I would be wrong to claim that such horrible acts have been solely due to religion, but it is evident that when you believe a god or gods are with you, you can do practically anything with moral authority.  Even when I was religious I couldn’t ignore that troubling aspect.  Yet they claim that atheism destroys morality and therefore societies!  To use a cliché among the nonreligious when defending our lack of belief: no one has ever committed an atrocity because they don’t believe in Zeus, and it’s just as ridiculous the claim that people have because of the lack of belief in the Judeo-Christian or any other deity.  Lack of belief causes nothing, because it asserts no ideological viewpoint good or bad other than the lack of existence of said deity.  Belief in a personal god, on the other hand, requires exactly such an ideology, which absolutely can and has hurt society.

Nothing was done in the name of “atheism,” because atheism doesn’t promote anything that could be used to support an act.  There is no logical link simply from the lack of religion to negative actions.  Lenin may have been atheist (let’s accept this for argument’s sake), but he was also bald.  Would it not be ridiculous to claim that baldness causes people to commit genocide?  Of course, because baldness is just a fact/a state of being which has nothing of which one could use to justify actions.  Atheism is the same, it is simply a state of being – the lack of belief, which contains no specific ideas which could be used to justify any action.  It is the height of hypocrisy for those who follow religious ideologies that not only contain beliefs that can be used to justify actions good or bad, but have been used historically to justify horrible actions, to criticize atheism so.

To get back to the point: these highly secular countries, as the book reportedly shows, categorically show that atheism does not by nature lead to societal destruction.  The societies in Denmark and Sweden, although not perfect, are doing great without religion.  In many ways they are doing better than one of if not the most religious country, the United States.  This is not to claim that the lack of religion causes a good society.  Culture is much more complicated than that.  Without substantial evidence this would be a ridiculous overstatement.  It does contribute further evidence that atheism certainly does not destroy societies.  Considering the history of religiously justified atrocities and wars, it isn’t a stretch to assert that the lack of religion can, and in the case of Denmark and Sweden, has surely helped such societies on the path to the contentment which Society without God discusses.

Tags: atheism, atheist, book, Denmark, nonreligious, pharyngula, phil zuckerman, secular, secularism, society without god, Sweden