Golden Age of Freethought
The Golden Age of Freethought ended at the start of World War I.
The Golden Age of Freethought describes the 19th-century United States socio-political movement which promoted freethought. Generally speaking, the period from 1875 to 1914 is referred to as "the high-water mark of freethought as an influential movement in American society".[1]
Politically, the atheist movement has leaned left in its politics (See: Secular left and Atheism and politics). Secular leftist utopianism and its exalted view of human nature did not line up with the horrors of the World War I. The Golden Age of Freethought ended at the start of World War I.
The Christian view of the fall of man better explained the horrors of WWI and WWII. In addition, atheism is negatively correlated with economic/political instability.[2] See also: World War I and Darwinism and Evolutionary racism and Nazi Germany.
The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union further chilled Americans receptiveness to atheism.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Jacoby, Susan. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, p. 151
- ↑ Economics and atheism