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How did atheism begin in Victorian England how did it increase?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Atheism was around before religion because there it is merely the absence of theism. No doubt an increase in scientific knowledge led to an increase in religious skepisim but personal faith does not have to conflict with science and can easily coexist, as long as the faith does not require inflexible beliefs which contradict known facts.
AnswerProbably Charles Darwin's theory of Natural Selection and book "The Origin Of Species" got most people to doubt their faith or to stop believing in God. Also with the many arguments about science and God that were going on at that time made Victorians doubt their faith even more. But at that time going to church was important for social respect. So must people secretly stopped believing in God and still went to church. So the number of Atheists and Freethinkers at that time is still very unknown. Usually people who spoke up or admitted that they were atheists were discriminated, judged and treated poorly. Many famous freethinkers lived during that time so the arguments they made made people doubt God. But still the truth is unknoun about the existence of God.
AnswerAn interesting answer above: Darwin's book certainly gave people a convincing theory of the origin of life, as opposed to a very unconvincing Creationist tale. But atheists predate Darwin's 1859 book. Charles Bradlaugh, for example, was writing secularist pamphlets in 1853. He was elected as Member Of Parliament for Nothampton in 1880, and introduced the right to Affirm for MPs and witnesses in legal cases.
In the 1800s (and for hundreds of years before that), publicly speaking about atheism was illegal under the Blasphemy laws, and George Holyoake was sent to prison in August 1842 for remarks he made in a speech. His colleague, Charles Southwell, had been imprisoned as well, earlier that year.
Holyoake was the last person to be imprisoned in England for blasphemy, but the fact that atheists were not much in the public eye before the 1850s is perhaps in part due to the fact that they would have risked having their liberty removed for stating what they believed to be true.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
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