With Christianity in decline will atheism save the West against the various threats?

(Paraphrased from a Quora Question)

The issue is complex and unfortunately I am somewhat pessimistic on the likely prognosis.

You see Atheism isn’t a belief system in and of itself but rather a denial of the existence of any God. One can be a right wing or left wing atheist, an atheist collectivist or an individualist, an Ayn Rand fan or a Marxist. Take your pick. There are indeed atheists who value the Christian heritage of Europe. Some may be favorable to ideas arising from Judaism or indeed various aspects of Islam or Buddhism.

However you are correct in noting that more and more people in Western Europe (in particular) are adopting a strong agnostic stance towards theism. Christianity seems to be waning and what is replacing it is a secular worldview that seems partially rooted to a type of humanism.

The dynamic is further ahead in Europe than it is in North America but in terms of direction the US looks to follow suit. Canada certainly has.

Much of this resides in a Hegelian notion that history has a direction towards a universalism with strong progressive undertones. Market forces will be held in check by various degrees of necessary top-down intervention. The debate in the eyes of the modern secularist should be about the degree of intervention, not the actual paradigm itself.

For the secularist the global citizen operating within a multicultural framework is the ideal, stripped of historical prejudice, leading humanity forward under the framework of a worldwide community. Western Civilization will not so much disappear but transform itself into a chimera that combines the best of the other. So the thinking goes.

In and of itself this modern secularism seems to have a lot going for it after all it appears to accommodate a variety of beliefs and opinions. Toleration is its buzz word as is its twin companion - respect.

However in offering something to everyone secularism essentially weds itself to nothing. It offers very little beyond platitudes and is open to attack and ultimately erosion by dynamics that have rushed to fill the Post-Christian void.

Islamism is one such political philosophy, radical environmentalism, is another, so are the various dogmas that use identity politics of class and race to punctuate their worldview. Some of these movements are pre-Enlightenment manifestations, others are later developments. Each tends to jettison skeptical empiricism in favor of a supposed ‘ought’. They all place a predetermined collective ahead of the individual and deify their respective ideal. All are ultimately toxic. However they have a will to power.

One could make the case as Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens have in the past that science, reason and logic are the drivers that represent the way forward in a secular world and are the tools that can be used to combat the various regressions. The value of each of these aspects cannot be understated. They are indeed of immense importance in trying to understand the working of the universe.

However I am not convinced based on the evidence that they are enough. For one science is a methodology not a belief system and operates best in its zone of applicability. Using it as a driver for morality and personal comfort may suffice for a Sam Harris but it will not have a broader appeal. It is also subject to abuse and political manipulation.

You see human beings tend to prejudice emotion over reason, ignore facts that shatter their paradigm and are more inclined to be moved by appeals to the heart than the head. Why Is It So Hard to Change Minds? People can rationalize a belief system and explain away the other. Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds. Confirmation bias plays an important role in framing one’s world view and by definition short sells an objective assessment of the pros and cons of a particular issue.

Jonathan Haidt has written a great deal on the way people have framed their moral belief system

Source: socialsciencepage.

It is for this reason that discredited ideologies such as Communism/Marxism/Maoism keep re-emerging as a ‘fix it’, despite their horrendous record associated with the Stalinist Purges, the Holdomor, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian Killing Fields. At its core it offers a ‘utopia’ which has emotional appeal. It makes a claim of a ‘better world’ end goal. Who wouldn’t want that? Past failures are explained away by the No True Scotsman fallacy. No True Scotsman

Christianity in the West on a broader level offered support and appealed to people’s emotional being. It was far from perfect but it did provide for a framework of belief that offered stability. Its greatest strength was that it gave humanity intrinsic meaning that transcended the harshness of the day-to-day materialism. Murder in the Christian worldview is intrinsically evil. It is not ‘just bad’ based on Consequence, Utilitarianism or Kantian ethics.

Christianity as do other religions also provides for a vital and much needed sense of community.

Critics of course dismiss this whole line of thought as wishful thinking but for those thrown into the turmoil of life’s daily struggle it offered necessary comfort. People need that. It provided a moral structure to guide a person through the angst of one’s existence.

However the legs of Christianity in the West, like so many other institutions including our shared historical legacy, are being kicked out each day. The process is not new and in a sense has been ongoing since World War One. In 2020 we have seen this process accelerate with attacks on the common history and national Identity not just in the US but in the UK and Canada as well.

So where does this leave us? That is a very pertinent question that we face in the contemporary. Secular Humanism is vulnerable to an assault from dynamics with a greater will to power. It all too often lacks the wherewithal to counter ideologies that are destructive. By its very nature it champions accommodation and this is its Achilles Heel. Those who are aware of the Alinsky play of forcing ‘one’s opponents to live up to its ideals’ can wield this weapon effectively. There is historical precedent here in the takedown of the Weimar Republic in post WWI Germany after its constant bombardment by the twin extremes of Communism and National Socialism.

All of this is very disturbing and unless majority of people who define the center left and right and come together under a common banner that values the rule of law, our individual freedoms, a transcendence rooted in a shared national identity and value system we will be in for a difficult time in the foreseeable future.

Modern secular humanism will not be our saviour.