Has there ever been such a thing as an atheist civilization?

Question

Was there ever an ancient civilization that developed without some sort of guiding religious mythology, with some sense of divinity? In the ancient world I'd think this would happen less than it can today.

Answer 1

Any communist country.

Answer 2

Religion is deeply rooted in society before civilization. I will assume that the idea of god came shortly after people started to live in group. Therefore, I do not think any civilization ever existed without any influence of religion. I agree that Buddhism and Confucianism are philosophies but they are only parts of and co-exist within a civilization. This has added nothing to the proof of the existence of god.

Edit:
Even during the Tang dynasty, Buddhism flourished in China, the ruling emperors still fell in and out of religious beliefs. It came very close to be an atheist civilization.

I hope the eagle is right. I don't mind the slow coming of an atheist civilization.

Answer 3

It now seems that our cold war enemies, the Russians, were in fact doing us a huge favour by suppressing religion in their "client" countries. Once the Soviet Union fell apart, the repression of religion went away and the mullahs were then free to do what they have always wanted to do. The rest is history.

Perhaps we should go over the list of civilizations that declined or disappeared because of religion.
The Roman Empire declined as christianity became prevalent.
The Angkorian civilization used all their manpower and money to build temples and were overthrown by the Thai invaders.
Spain was the world superpower in the 1500s and then steadily lost influence after the Inquistion.
The Arabian empire thrived until Islam arrived. Up went the walls, out went trade.
The British Empire declined steadily during the 1800s as Queen Victoria pushed her religious ideas onto the public.
Last, and surely not the least, the American empire weakened as the influence of the church on policymaking grew.

Answer 4

Apparently prior to the USSR no nation.

It is amazing, however, how many similarities of some forms of Christianity communism was. It's almost a religion.

Everything belongs to the state (God) and the people (the devoted) get what they need from the state (God). They call themselves comrades (brothers and sisters). They are insitilled with a strong worth ethich of self sacrifice to which a person is expected to go down into the sewers on a weeend of his vacation, on a holiday day (like May Day) at night, in the cold and repair things because they are the closest person to the problem (and Jesus said if asked to carry the pack for 5 miles carry it for 10 miles). Everyone is to accept their allotment in life (a vow of poverty). Local regions have meetings to disscuss things (congregatinalism) and the main government is made up of local represenatives (Presbyterianism) and if things go well you will make a utopia (find Heaven). Religion is the opiate of the people (I am a Jealous God and thou shall have no other God before me, the State).

Atheism for them was just a sideline.

Answer 5

Actually the Greeks had many atheist and a school for the belief. It was one of the many intellectual debates of the religious schools in their civilizations. You'd be surprised at how the arguments presented today, minus evolution, were presented then. There are very few new arguments for them.

I wouldn't say Greece was an atheist civilization, but that they were no different than our own with it's varying opinions.

Answer 6

Not that I have ever heard of. It is just innate in mankind to worship or depend upon a higher being. Probably the closest you will ever find such a society is in contemporary times with the communist countries like China and North Korea. However the governments still have to suppress their citizen's spiritual and religious beliefs. Just something natural in humans.

Answer 7

I've never heard an ancient civ being atheist, but in modern times, the USSR was supposed to be atheist. Atheism is pretty much a modern invention. All societies come up with a religion just like all societies come up with a language.

Answer 8

No, never, all ancient civilizations worshipped some form of deity. As you point out, This a trend of the modern times.

Answer 9

Prior to science, one of the functions that religion served was as the answer to the perennial human question: "Why are things the way they are?"

So no, we haven't found any ancient civilizations that didn't have some sort of religion. It was their way of approaching the mysteries of existence and making sense of them. In my opinion, widespread atheism is possible in the modern era because we have science to answer the questions that religion once addressed.

Answer 10

Yes, I too am glad that modern times there is the possibility of an atheist civilization more than in ancient times. It shows that we are evolving in thought.

Answer 11

no longer off your rocker in any respect - in case you lok on the type of the city-states, all of them, regardless of their non secular foundation, made no longer in elementary words rules about those uncomplicated issues, yet non secular rules to boot. For extremely multiple communities, the ruling type replaced into seen to were put in that position by technique of the grace of their god - a challenge that still exists in England today, and till the Nineteen Fifties in numerous different international locations, at the same time with China. some were even seen gods themselves, blurring the strains of religion and authorities irrevocably - Japan, China, Korea, Egypt are only a number of the international locations the position their rulers were seen gods. it really is unquestionably a sturdy danger - you try this crime, no longer in elementary words do you face secular consequences, you face the wrath of your close by god. So inspite of in case you damage out with against the law, you may want to stay in consistent worry of the gods taking their wrath out on you. Youre instructor replaced into highly intelligent - and courageous, to assert one of those ingredient in a public college. yet then, preparation voncepts like that replaced right into a lot less complicated 20-30 years in the past than it really is now.