Decline of the secular left

Joseph Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, patronised the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim, under the leadership of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, was to propagate militant atheism and eradicate religion.

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 Marxist-Leninists to power." Vitalij Lazarʹevič Ginzburg, a Soviet physicist, wrote that the "Bolshevik communists were not merely atheists but, according to Lenin's terminology, militant atheists."

As noted above, historically the largest advances of the secular left has been through utilizing the power of the state (see: State atheism and Atheism and communism). For example, secular leftists use the power of the state to promote evolutionary ideology and to censor creationist/intelligent design models of origins (See: Suppression of alternatives to evolution and Atheist indoctrination).

The historian Martin Van Crevel points out that sovereign states are losing power/influence due to technology democratizing access to information, welfare states increasingly failing, fourth-generation warfare being waged against countries and sovereign states increasingly losing their ability to maintain internal order.

Decline of state atheism in the world

In the latter part of the 20th century and presently, state atheism is increasing losing power (see: Growth of Christianity in China and Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union).

On November 1, 2014, an article in The Economist entitled Cracks in the atheist edifice declared:

“

Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the Communist Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s atheism... Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.

”

Decline of the secular left's influence due to demography and religious immigration

Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, using a a wealth of demographic studies argues the decline of atheism in terms of its global adherents is an established trend that will persist for the foreseeable future and the rate of decline will accelerate.

See also: Global atheism and Global Christianity

On December 23, 2012, Professor Eric Kaufmann who teaches at Birbeck College, University of London wrote:

“

I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious. On the other hand, the secular West and East Asia has very low fertility and a rapidly aging population. The demographic disparity between the religious, growing global South and the aging, secular global North will peak around 2050. In the coming decades, the developed world's demand for workers to pay its pensions and work in its service sector will soar alongside the booming supply of young people in the third world. Ergo, we can expect significant immigration to the secular West which will import religious revival on the back of ethnic change. In addition, those with religious beliefs tend to have higher birth rates than the secular population, with fundamentalists having far larger families. The epicentre of these trends will be in immigration gateway cities like New York (a third white), Amsterdam (half Dutch), Los Angeles (28% white), and London, 45% white British.

”

Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."

In 2010, in his book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth, Eric Kaufmann wrote concerning the culture war in the United States:

“

High evangelical fertility rates more than compensated for losses to liberal Protestant sects during the twentieth century. In recent decades, white secularism has surged, but Latino and Asian religious immigration has taken up the slack, keeping secularism at bay. Across denominations, the fertility advantage of religious fundamentalists of all colours is significant and growing. After 2020, their demographic weight will begin to tip the balance in the culture wars towards the conservative side, ramping up pressure on hot-button issues such as abortion. By the end of the century, three quarters of America may be pro-life. Their activism will leap over the borders of the 'Redeemer Nation' to evangelize the world. Already, the rise of the World Congress of Families has launched a global religious right, its arms stretching across the bloody lines of the War on Terror to embrace the entire Abrahamic family.

”

Right wing politics ascendant in secular Europe and the United States

See also: Secular Europe

In June of 2014, Forbes reported that it is undeniable that politically right wing parties are ascendant in Europe.

In November of 2016, the politically left Barack Obama administration and Democratic Party received a huge loss in the midterm elections by losing control of the United States Senate and losing a historic amount of state legislature elections.

Secular left's inability to stop the rise of anti-homosexuality laws around the world

African Christians clapping at an open air meeting.

In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western World Christians as there were Western World Christians.

In recent years, Christianity has seen a rapid growth in Africa. See: Global atheism and Atheist population

See also: Atheism and homosexuality and Views on homosexuality and Homosexual agenda

The conservative journalist Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth wrote: "Anyone who has researched the subject of homosexuality knows that many of the most staunch advocates of homosexuality are those who hold a decidedly secular outlook." (See also: Atheism and homosexuality).

In February of 2014, Newsweek reported a rise of anti-homosexuality laws around the world. According to Newsweek, the rise of anti-homosexuality laws in the world is due to weak governments and politicians desiring to appeal to popular anti-homosexuality opinion.

The secular leftist Simon Ssenkaayi argues that identity politics and other strategies that worked in the Western World to promote acceptance of homosexuality will not work in Africa and that developing relationships with communities would be a more effective method. Historically, atheists have not engaged in evangelism in Africa and atheists have a reputation for possessing poor social skills (see: Atheism and social intelligence and Atheism and arrogance and Atheist factions).

American atheists unsuccessful attempts to engage in identity politics

See also: Views on atheists and Atheism and public relations and Atheism and social outcasts and Atheophobia

Atheism is an arrogant ideology which has a lot of arrogant, angry, quarrelsome and immoral adherents (see: Atheism and arrogance and Atheism and anger and Atheism and social intelligence and Moral failures of the atheist community and Atheism and love). As a result, atheists often create a lot antipathy towards themselves - especially atheists who are militant atheists/misotheists (see: Views on atheists).

In addition, in the United States, many American atheists are leftists who engage in identity politics. As a result, many atheists like to whine about how they are viewed negatively in society which has a tendency to foster additional antipathy towards them (See Atheist whining). Given the foolish nature of atheism and given that atheists in the United States tend to be white males, identity politics has not gained much traction in the political realm (see: Western atheism and race and Atheism and women). Furthermore, many conservative theists dislike that fact that atheists have engaged in pushing their ideology in the educational system (see: Atheist indoctrination).

Recommended books

• The Decline of the Secular University by C. John Sommerville, June 29, 2006

• Dimitry Pospielovsky, (December, 1987), A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Antireligious Policies, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0312381328

• Dimitry Pospielovsky, (November, 1987), Soviet Antireligious Campaigns and Persecutions (History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice and the Believers, Vol 2), Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0312009054

• Dimitry Pospielovsky, (August, 1988), Soviet Studies on the Church and the Believer's Response to Atheism: A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice and the Believers, Vol 3, Palgrave Macmillan, hardcover: ISBN 0312012918, paperback edition: ISBN 0312012926

See also

• Atheism and politics

• Atheist movement

External links

• The Decline of the Left by Emma-Kate Symons
• The Decline of the Left in Europe - Harvard University History Department
• The decline and fall of Occupy Wall Street: the American Left has run out of steam and liberalism is in crisis by Niles Gardiner