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[[Atheism|Atheists]] such as Richard Lewontin start with a philosophical premise: There is no God, therefore a purely materialistic explanation of everything, including us, must be true. But this is ideology, not science. Lewontin, who teaches genetics at Harvard, admits as much: "We take the side of science… in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism."<ref> [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4761196 George Sim Johnston at National Public Radio]</ref>
[[Atheism|Atheists]] such as Richard Lewontin start with a philosophical premise: There is no God, therefore a purely materialistic explanation of everything, including us, must be true. But this is ideology, not science. Lewontin, who teaches genetics at Harvard, admits as much: "We take the side of science… in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism."<ref> [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4761196 George Sim Johnston at National Public Radio]</ref>
In the both the [[physical science|physical sciences]] and [[social sciences]] atheism has had a negative effect on science.
=== Atheism and the suppression of science ===
''See also:'' [[Atheism and the suppression of science]]
[[Atheism and the suppression of science]], as well as atheism and the rejection of science, is one common criticism of [[atheism]], as [[militant atheist]]s have often suppressed [[science|scientific knowledge]] because it conflicts with a presupposed [[materialism|materialistic]] [[worldview]].<ref name="Lennox">{{cite web|url=http://johnlennox.org/index.php/en/resource/same_evidence_different_conclusions_how/|title =Same evidence, different conclusions: how?|author=[[John Lennox]]|publisher=Science and Ethics|quote=Some atheists are quite explicit that their atheism comes first. One of the most famous is Richard Lewontin, a profesor of genetics, who said it wasn't science that compelled him to accept a materialistic explanation of the universe. It was an a priori materialism. You start with that materialism and he said that materialism is absolute.|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>
Dr. [[Richard Lewontin]], in the ''New York Review of Books'', January 9, 1997:31 entitled ''Billions and Billions of Demons'' (reviewing the book ''The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'' by Carl Sagan) states:<ref name="Waldman">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wXGyV0vdDoUC&pg=PA241&dq=materialism+absolute+divine+foot+atheism&hl=en&ei=uCxxTeWyFoOKlwepyOQ0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Convincing Evidence of the Truths of Judaism|author=Shmuel Waldman|publisher=[[Feldheim Publishers]]|quote=Consider the following remark made by Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin in the ''New York Review of Books'', January 9, 1997:31 entitled ''Billions and Billions of Demons'' (reviewing the book ''The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'' by Carl Sagan): "We take the side of science ''in spite'' of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, ''in spite'' of its failure to fulfill many of its extravangant promises of health and life, ''in spite'' of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It's not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by our ''a priori'' adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>
{{cquote|We take the side of science ''in spite'' of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, ''in spite'' of its failure to fulfill many of its extravangant promises of health and life, ''in spite'' of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstatiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It's not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by our ''a priori'' adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the unitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.<ref name="Waldman">{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wXGyV0vdDoUC&pg=PA241&dq=materialism+absolute+divine+foot+atheism&hl=en&ei=uCxxTeWyFoOKlwepyOQ0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q&f=false|title =Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Convincing Evidence of the Truths of Judaism|author=Shmuel Waldman|publisher=[[Feldheim Publishers]]|quote=Consider the following remark made by Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin in the ''New York Review of Books'', January 9, 1997:31 entitled ''Billions and Billions of Demons'' (reviewing the book ''The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'' by Carl Sagan): "We take the side of science ''in spite'' of the patent absurdidy of some of its constructs, ''in spite'' of its failure to fulfill many of its extravangant promises of health and life, ''in spite'' of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It's not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by our ''a priori'' adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."|accessdate = 2011-03-05}}</ref>}}
For various examples of atheists suppressing science, see:
* [[Atheism and the suppression of science]]
* [[Suppression of alternatives to evolution]]
=== List atheist and agnostic pseudosciences ===
*[[List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences]]
=== The economist and sociologist Karl Marx. The political theorist Vladimir Lenin ===
According to the [[University of Cambridge]], historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninists]] to power."<ref name="Marxism-Leninism">{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20130728215151/http://www.investigatingatheism.info/marxism.html|title="Investigating atheism: Marxism"|publisher = [[University of Cambridge]]|quote=The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.|year=2008|accessdate=July 17, 2014|}}</ref> See also: [[Atheism and communism]]
The economist and sociologist [[Karl Marx]] said "[Religion] is the opium of the people". Marx also stated: "[[Communism]] begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction.<ref>Mulligan, Martin (1959). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm "Private property and communism"] translation of Marx, Karl (1932), ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers).</ref>
Political philosophy, or political theory is often considered a sub-discipline of political science. The political theorist [[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote regarding atheism and communism: "A Marxist must be a [[materialism|materialist]], i.e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i.e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the [[class struggle]] which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Rothstein, Andrew and Issacs, Bernard (1973). [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm "The attitude of the worker's party to religion"] translation of Lenin, Vladimir (1909), ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), ''Collected Works'', (Moscow: Progress Publishers) vol. 15, pp. 402-13.</ref>
[[Marxism]] is an revolutionary movement developed by the German scholar and activist Karl Marx and his collaborator [[Friedrich Engels]]. Marx's approach is indicated by the opening line of the Communist Manifesto (1848): “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. Marx believed that [[capitalism]], like previous socioeconomic systems, would produce internal tensions which would lead to its destruction.
[[Communism]], as it emerged around 1918-20, was a late political manifestation of Marxist philosophy. [[Lenin]] in [[Russia]] and later [[Mao Zedong]] in [[China]] tailored Marx's ideas it to their expedient political needs.
Eventually, the communist [[Soviet Union]] collapsed due to: an inferior economic system, lack of personal liberties for its populace due to excessive central government control and an economy burdened by militarism.<ref>[http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sovietcollapse.htm Thayer Watkins, San José State University, Department of Economics]</ref>
In September of 2010 [[Fox News]] reported concerning communist Cuba:
{{Cquote|Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked [[Fidel Castro|Castro]] if [[Cuba]]'s economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.
The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/09/castro-admits-cubas-communism-doesnt-work/</ref>}}
==== Communism and mass murder ====
''See also:'' [[Atheism and Mass Murder|Atheism and mass murder]]
It is estimated that in the past 100 years, governments under the banner of atheistic [[communism]] have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.<ref>Multiple references:
*[http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/289239.html The Black Book of Communism The Human cost of Communism - 100 Million], IndyMedia, April 4. 2004, Retrieved 5/23/2015
*[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm "''The Black Book of Communism''"]. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences website: Cold War Studies. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
*Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM "How many did communist regimes murder?"] University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
*White, Matthew (February 2011). [http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm "Source list and detailed death tolls for the primary megadeaths of the twentieth century"]. Necrometrics. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
*Higgins, David (June 22, 2007). [http://web.archive.org/web/20071008035420/http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 "Memory and ideology: Washington's newest statue is the Victims Of Communism Memorial"]. Sarasota Magazine website. Retrieved from October 8, 2007 archive at Internet Archive on May 22, 2015.
*Radosh, Ronald (February 2000). [http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 "''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression''"]. First Things [journal] website. Retrieved July 19, 2014.</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM "How many did communist regimes murder?"] University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War. Retrieved July 19, 2014.</ref>
=== National Academy of Sciences scientists and disbelief in a personal God ===
See: [[Atheists and the National Academy of Sciences]]
=== Science journal and science magazine quotes about theism and atheism ===
''See also:'' [[Atheism Quotes#Atheism quotes relating to science|Atheism quotes relating to science]] and [[Denials that atheists exist]] and [[Atheism Quotes|Atheism quotes]]
“A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to [[faith]].” - Pascal Boyer, in the British science journal ''Nature''<ref> Unruh, Bob (July 19, 2014). "[http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/science-writer-atheists-might-not-exist/ Scientists: atheists might not exist]". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved on February 21, 2015.</ref>
“Atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think... They point to studies showing, for example, that even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul.” - Graham Lawton in the ''New Scientist'' science magazine <ref> Unruh, Bob (July 19, 2014). "[http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/science-writer-atheists-might-not-exist/ Scientists: atheists might not exist]". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved on February 21, 2015.</ref>
== See also ==
== See also ==