Atheism and its origins in nineteenth century England and Scotland
Principal Investigator
Professor David Nash
School of History, Philosophy and Culture
Oxford Brookes University
This project investigated the beliefs of atheists and agnostics in Britain from approximately 1841 until 1910. In particular it concentrated upon the factors that led to an individual deciding that they were atheist or agnostic.
How atheism has moved from a philosophical position to practical belief system in England since 1819 has not been investigated historically. Previous studies of the Freethinking/Atheist Press and print culture in Victorian England used it only to investigate a radical broadly defined secularist movement. This project aimed to fill this considerable gap by analysing how atheism was articulated, and it’s origins discussed amongst the like-minded, within this print culture.
In the range of print resources that make up the Victorian Atheist Press we can discern clear and explicate affirmations of belief. Investigating the print culture enables us to illustrate how individuals in the nineteenth century explained the origins of atheism to themselves and to each other, including what they thought the causal origins of atheism to be, what convinced them, and how they thought about the process.
The sources also provide insight into past critiques of supernatural phenomena (such as spiritualism), the relative value of ‘strong agnosticism’ and the benefits or otherwise of investigating comparative religion; as well as how contemporary formulations of other worldviews (such as Rationalism, Humanism, Ethicism, Marxism and Scientism) impacted upon the most fully developed atheist/secularist culture of the nineteenth century.
Examining contemporary statements of belief in the historical past, offers greater understanding of the most powerful predicting factors (using historical data) of those who turned (and now turn) to forms of non-theism. It allows us to observe in the sources the causality of the articulated choices individuals made around the ‘absence of belief’, ‘moral judgements around the immorality of “religion”’, and ‘social identities that feature “atheism.”’
Publications
Reasons to be Atheist in Victorian England (forthcoming 2025), Bloomsbury
Mapping the causes of Victorian unbelief. An evaluation of historical data through sociological theories and techniques (forthcoming 2025), Secular Studies Journal
