Why do you think that is? Longer history of atheism?
I do think that “converts” (either to a religion or to atheism) think differently than people who were raised in their current belief system. If you’re childhood was religious, then you’ll associate religion with childhood and your parents, either negatively (“religion is childish”) or positively (“religion is comforting.”)
I suppose the history of atheism, measured by many reasonable criteria, is actually longer in North America than in Eastern Europe. Yes, the atheism was state sponsored for 40-50 years in Eastern European countries (70 years in the Soviet union), but it was often imposed on thoroughly religious societies. Practically all intellectual innovations were coming from the West.
Some possible (not experimentally tested and probably false) causes of the differences in atheists’ thinking:
1) The communist ideology has used “atheism” and “materialism” practically interchangeably. The latter term has connotations which put it into opposition to all “purpose of life” questions, which are usually associated with idealism (in Marxist terminology, idealism and materialism are two disjoint complementary types of worldview). Therefore, people who consider questions of “purpose of life” important aren’t comfortable with calling themselves atheists in former communist countries.
2) The word “atheist” is sometimes used as an insult in the US (rarely so in Czech republic, I have no idea about rest of Eastern Europe). The US atheists have adopted the term in order to signal their opposition to organised religion, however they have to compensate the associated negative feeling of being perceived as immoral, and they compensate it by frequent thinking about ethics, morality and purpose of life.
3) There were several intellectuals in the West who identified themselves as atheists and set the standard for atheist philosophy, where questions about purpose of life are meaningful. (Somebody who knows the writings of e.g. Bertrand Russell better than me should tell whether this isn’t sheer nonsense. I can’t think about any instance of famous self-proclaimed atheist writing about purpose of life.) On the contrary, Eastern Europe lacks any credible atheist intellectual tradition.
4) The word atheism has simply a sligthly different meaning on different sides of the Iron curtain. The difference has evolved rather randomly, without any specific cause.
Unfortunately I can provide no means of testing the above claims.
Well, as I said, that question is very hard to answer not only because it’s complex and involves many concepts that aren’t amenable to a no-nonsense scientific approach, but also because any sensible answer must include ideologically sensitive claims. History of ideas is a fascinating subject, but also an extraordinarily difficult one.
I don’t have anything like a complete and plausible theory that would answer your question, but one thing of which I am certain is that such a theory should start with re-examining the standard notion of “religion,” which I believe has outlived its usefulness in the modern world, and is nowadays creating more confusion than insight. But getting even just into that topic means opening enormous cans of worms.
Why do you think that is? Longer history of atheism?
I do think that “converts” (either to a religion or to atheism) think differently than people who were raised in their current belief system. If you’re childhood was religious, then you’ll associate religion with childhood and your parents, either negatively (“religion is childish”) or positively (“religion is comforting.”)
I suppose the history of atheism, measured by many reasonable criteria, is actually longer in North America than in Eastern Europe. Yes, the atheism was state sponsored for 40-50 years in Eastern European countries (70 years in the Soviet union), but it was often imposed on thoroughly religious societies. Practically all intellectual innovations were coming from the West.
Some possible (not experimentally tested and probably false) causes of the differences in atheists’ thinking:
1) The communist ideology has used “atheism” and “materialism” practically interchangeably. The latter term has connotations which put it into opposition to all “purpose of life” questions, which are usually associated with idealism (in Marxist terminology, idealism and materialism are two disjoint complementary types of worldview). Therefore, people who consider questions of “purpose of life” important aren’t comfortable with calling themselves atheists in former communist countries.
2) The word “atheist” is sometimes used as an insult in the US (rarely so in Czech republic, I have no idea about rest of Eastern Europe). The US atheists have adopted the term in order to signal their opposition to organised religion, however they have to compensate the associated negative feeling of being perceived as immoral, and they compensate it by frequent thinking about ethics, morality and purpose of life.
3) There were several intellectuals in the West who identified themselves as atheists and set the standard for atheist philosophy, where questions about purpose of life are meaningful. (Somebody who knows the writings of e.g. Bertrand Russell better than me should tell whether this isn’t sheer nonsense. I can’t think about any instance of famous self-proclaimed atheist writing about purpose of life.) On the contrary, Eastern Europe lacks any credible atheist intellectual tradition.
4) The word atheism has simply a sligthly different meaning on different sides of the Iron curtain. The difference has evolved rather randomly, without any specific cause.
Unfortunately I can provide no means of testing the above claims.
SarahC:
Well, as I said, that question is very hard to answer not only because it’s complex and involves many concepts that aren’t amenable to a no-nonsense scientific approach, but also because any sensible answer must include ideologically sensitive claims. History of ideas is a fascinating subject, but also an extraordinarily difficult one.
I don’t have anything like a complete and plausible theory that would answer your question, but one thing of which I am certain is that such a theory should start with re-examining the standard notion of “religion,” which I believe has outlived its usefulness in the modern world, and is nowadays creating more confusion than insight. But getting even just into that topic means opening enormous cans of worms.