Godless Army

In the sci-fi series “Raised by Wolves”, a brutal war serves as the backdrop for the show’s events. On one side are the followers of a fictional religion (an obvious stand-in for religion in general), and on the other is an army of atheists who fight for atheism as a cause. I’ve reviewed the show elsewhere, and what I want to do here is examine the idea of atheists banding together and going to war solely (or mainly) for their ideology. In my opinion, the idea is both unrealistic and interesting, and it’s the exercise of determining what makes it unrealistic that makes it interesting.

The Roads out of Rome:

Atheism plays a crucial role in shaping the atheist’s perceptions of, and behavior towards, himself, human beings in general, and the universe as a whole. But for all its revolutionary effects, atheism is a system of thought with a relatively limited domain of influence, requiring the atheist to seek elsewhere the answers to many of the most important questions a person might ask. This includes many political, economic, and philosophical questions, including what some consider to be the fundamental question of philosophy: is life worth living?

In the quest to find answers, the atheist may encounter and adopt any of a whole array of ideologies that are either compatible with an atheistic worldview (e.g. Liberalism), or include an atheistic worldview as a component (e.g. Communism). The result is that atheists are scattered across ideologies with varying degrees of (in)compatibility, such as Communism, Fascism, Liberalism, Nihilism…etc. Atheism is a negative position towards certain beliefs and ideas, and when people are running away from something their paths tend to diverge.

Convincing all these people to set aside their differences, focus on their atheism, form an army on that basis, and, most importantly, stay united in war conditions would be an extremely difficult task. Obviously, the task’s difficulty is proportional to the level of incompatibility between the ideologies the atheists hold, which means that the only realistic way of building a functioning fighting force out of atheists is to select for members who hold a specific ideology (or at least similar ideologies) and exclude all others, something which would undermine the army’s claim to be fighting for atheism or representative of atheists. In reality, it would be the specific ideology’s army, instead of being an atheist army.

An Army of Cats:

In the military, the structure is a rigid hierarchy, strict discipline is maintained, orders from superiors are expected to be obeyed without questioning, and stiff penalties are imposed on dissenters. These are necessary requirements for the existence a functioning fighting force, regular or irregular, especially in war conditions.

Generally, atheists are unfit for army life because the typical atheist has an inquisitive, skeptical mindset, and anti-authority tendencies. In “The God Delusion”, Richard Dawkins said: “Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority”[1]. These qualities are what enable the person to question and overcome deeply ingrained supernatural beliefs.

A realistic army of atheists would have to consist not only of members of the same ideology, but that ideology would have to be one which, much like religion, emphasizes conformity, discourages doubt, and is intolerant towards dissent (e.g. Communism). In this case, even more than before, it would be an army of atheists without being an atheist army.

A Math Problem:

As always, the overwhelming majority of the world’s population belongs to one religion or another. A lot of the statistics on atheist populations are of limited use because they don’t differentiate between atheists and agnostics. Nevertheless, the statistics indicate that atheists are in the single digits everywhere except in some countries in Europe and East Asia. In Europe the percentage ranges from 1% in Romania to 33% percent in France[2]. In the U.S. the percentage is 4%, compared to 65% who describe themselves as Christians[3]. In the majority of cases, the numbers are simply too low for creating an atheist army, let alone one which can take on a dominant religion’s army.

What are the alternatives?

If atheists can’t raise an army for self defense then they can either blend in or flee. Activism can be an option in some cases, for some people, and under certain conditions.

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[1] The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, 2006, pp. 4-5.
[2] Social values, Science and Technology, Directorate General Research and Communication (European Commission), 2005.
[3] In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace, Pew Research Center, 2019.

Posted: 07-03-2022
Tags: rationality