The Big Questions About ChristianityMuestra

Would atheists be better off without Christianity?

Many atheists think we’d be better off without religion and sometimes, specifically, that we’d be better off without Christianity.

Usually, when I speak with the more aggressive atheists, they’re so busy trying to debunk Christianity they don’t realize they should be thanking Christianity because, without it, atheism wouldn’t exist.

I know that’s a very big call, but here’s how I understand the facts of history.

Before the rise of Christianity, there was no record of any atheist ever existing. People in antiquity had different attitudes towards the gods. They often questioned the actions of the gods, or they even chose to ignore the gods. As far as we know, no one ever denied that the gods existed. No one ever actually said, “There is no god at all; all there is are us.”

There was a very good reason why no one ever denied the existence of the gods. Every ancient culture, every tribal or national identity, was based on the reality of their particular gods. To deny the existence of the gods was to destroy the fabric of their society and communal identity. Their communal identity was the most important thing back then.

So, what changed? This group of people suddenly appeared, saying the man Rome had executed was God. Even more ridiculous than that, they said they had seen him risen from the dead (Acts 3:15), and they called him God! That’s why the early Christians during the Roman Empire were persecuted.

The Christians responded in a strange way. In the face of persecution, Christians developed new ways of thinking that had never been seen before in the ancient world. They started developing philosophical ideas like personal freedom, human rights, freedom of belief, and tolerance.

These developments in thinking, by Christian philosophers, laid the foundations for a different kind of society – one who was able to tolerate and accept the right of the individual to believe in God however they chose or not to believe in God at all. This is why atheism emerged in Western civilization, and it only ever emerged because of Christianity.

I doubt I’ll ever hear an atheist say, “Thank God I’m an atheist,” but it would be appropriate.

Anyway, that’s my opinion, and in the spirit of what I’ve just said, you’re entitled to yours as well.

– Eliezer Gonzalez