Top 6 Takeaways from “Race in a Godless World”
Many people, it seems, like to get their content in the form of “Top Whatever Lists” — and I am no different! Hence, I present to you the top 6 takeaways from my book, Race in a Godless World: Atheism, Race, and Civilization, 1850–1914 (NYU Press and Manchester University Press, 2019):
1. Atheists were interested in scientific racism for its own sake
In the nineteenth century, some scientific (or pseudoscientific) studies divided humanity into distinct races that could be arranged into a hierarchy, with whites invariably on top. Some white atheists were interested in this science since it seemed to map onto what they observed in the world and flattered their own sense of superiority. Atheists saw themselves as disinterested and rational, and were therefore interested in what they interpreted as cutting-edge science, no matter where it led.
2. But they were also interested in scientific racism for its use against Christianity
Many atheists were interested in the idea of polygenesis — which said that human races all had separate origins. This contrasted with the idea of monogenesis — which said that human races had a single origin, in particular Adam and Eve in the Christian view. Polygenesis therefore emphasized the vast differences between races, while monogenesis emphasized the commonalities.
For atheists, supporting polygenesis seemed to undermine the entire Christian story. It questioned the idea of humans as being made in God’s image (as in the cartoon at the top of the article). Even worse, if polygenesis were true, this would cast doubt on the idea that Adam and Eve were humanity’s parents, and that their Original Sin was passed on to all people, which would in turn mean Jesus’s salvation only applied to a select portion of humanity. From there, the entire Christian story would come crashing down.
3. Despite this interest in scientific racism, atheists saw many positives in non-white societies
Many atheists came from the margins of society — from the working classes — and were shut out from the centres of power on account of their religion and class. This meant they were profoundly discontented with their own societies, which encouraged them to look outside their own borders for alternatives to the industrial capitalist societies in which they lived. While so-called “savage” societies were regularly mocked for their backwardness, atheists in fact had positive things to say about them. These societies seemed more egalitarian than their own. No one went destitute and the people seemed happier. As one author put it, “In the forest, virtue is native, and hospitality impulsive; the hand is open to receive the wretched, not as in Christendom, like a beggar, but as a brother.”
4. Atheists protested against racism in their own societies
Aside from expressions of sympathy for colonized groups, atheists also worked against racism in their own societies. A clear example of this is the American Robert Ingersoll, known as the Great Agnostic and one of the most famous freethinkers of his time. Ingersoll spoke out against the movement to exclude the Chinese from the United States in the late nineteenth century as well as the roll back of equal rights for African Americans in the 1880s. He also condemned lynching in the strongest terms, saying “I know of no words strong enough, bitter enough, to express my indignation and horror.” Of the lynchers, “they are a disgrace to our country, our century and the human race.”
5. Atheists of colour were not well-represented in the movement, but this doesn’t mean they were absent
It is true that most of the atheists and freethinkers I discuss in the book were white. Whites were disproportionately present in the movement, but there were of course also atheists of colour. I talk about examples of black freethinkers in my book, but Christopher Cameron has written a more detailed book on this topic, called Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism (which everyone should also check out!). Another freethinker of colour whom I discuss is Wong Chin Foo, a Chinese immigrant to the US who became a freethinker. In an 1887 article in the North American Review called “Why Am I A Heathen?,” Wong, who elsewhere called himself a “freethought missionary,” cheekily wrote that he “earnestly invited the Christians of America to come to Confucius.”
6. The lessons for the future are ambiguous
Because of atheists’ historical marginalization, they developed an identity that opposed itself against mainstream currents of thought. They questioned what they saw as the dominant ideas of the time. In the 19th century, this often meant questioning ideas of racial superiority, since these ideas were then dominant. In the present, some atheists continue to possess this oppositional identity, but it can sometimes lead in strange directions, such as questioning present-day axioms like equality between racial groups. Of course, it seems to be true that most atheists hold views opposed to racism; for others, the way they express their iconoclasm is actually through flirting with racism. What this means for attitudes to racism as secularization continues to unfold remains, therefore, an open question.
