Political scientist Ryan Burge claims that evangelicals are not the most politically active Americans. Atheists, indeed. “Let me put it plainly,” Burge wrote, “atheists are the most politically active group in American politics today, and the Democrats (and some Republicans) ignore them at their peril.”
Atheists outperformed evangelicals in most indications, from yard signs to protest marches.
We should question how this misleading notion that religious people are more political came to be accepted. Given their perspective, why are so many atheists so concerned about truth and fairness in politics? Why care about politics if everything is just atoms, quarks, and leptons?
“The Ricky Gervais solution” may help. Gervais, a British comedian, mocks Hollywood elites and promotes atheism in film, television, and life. In one of his acts, a dim-witted believer confronts his character, who cannot understand why anybody would not believe in an afterlife. If this life is all there is, she thinks, why bother caring? Gervais responds that we should enjoy what we have because this is all we have.
C.S. Lewis said of his atheism,
This is how contemporary atheism spreads the “good news” of destroying gods and improving lives, according to historian Tom Holland. “Atheism in the contemporary West is less a repudiation of Christianity than a logical endpoint of one of its key trends,” Holland argues.
Modern atheists want to fix the world because they’re angry with God for making it. The metaphysical rebel atheist, according to Albert Camus,
exceeds his denials. At first, he only talks to God. It’s rude. Conquest drives this polemic. The slave wants a crown after demanding justice.
Like many Atheists and Antitheists, I was living in contradictions. I denied God. God’s nonexistence made me furious. I also hated Him for making the world.
Christians may capitalize on atheist activism. Two, actually. Co-belligerency first. Even if unjustified, atheists frequently find common ground with Christians in “wokeism” and our culture’s critical theory attitude.
Agnostic Evan Griggs of The European Conservative writes,
Fighting the “woke” requires accepting that only Christianity can overcome the worship of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Non-believers need not convert, but we must go.
We may also love our unbeliever neighbors. Atheists who care about justice implicitly admit that there must be more to life than their worldview permits. We might remind them that Christian beliefs about the imago Dei underpin their human dignity. We can explain evil as a true part of existence after the fall.
Christian hope goes beyond wishful thinking for change and good to win over evil. The loving God Who created atheists, yet Whom they deny, will restore all good things through Jesus Christ.