Atheism Essay

The Czech Republic is one of the most secularized countries, and is continuing to increase in percentage of those that do not associate themselves with religion. But why does this small, random country in the middle of Europe have a large percentage of atheists? This country went through the age of reason, was influenced by the French revolution, communism, the velvet revolution and many other historical events that shaped the country to have a majority of as non religious. There are theories basing the atheist/secularized population in this country to date after the fall of communism. However, many neighboring countries are still highly involved in religious practice even after the impact of communism. Atheism did not become favored amongst the people by it proselytizing to the Czech Republic, but instead secularization was a result of the country’s history. During the 16th century, in the Czech lands, disputes between Catholics and non-catholic sects of Christianity were happening consistently every day. This tension was growing stronger throughout the century, and religious freedom was completely eliminated when the Habsburgs defeated the Bohemian regime of Czech. This monarchy was demanding Catholicism to be the only religion of worship, and “forced all the evangelical Christians either to flee the country or to stay illegally” (Rattay 9). So if that was your faith was anything except Catholicism then you had to get out of the country, or risk staying and worshiping in secrecy as best you could. Executions of many non-Catholic inhabitants created this apprehensive attitude towards Catholicism, and citizens became hesitant on believing in such a dictatorship regime. Re-Catholicization continued until the 17th century, and eve...

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...obligations in the community. The church was not allowed to really participate in any media events or political matters. The Czechs tried to distance themselves from the Catholic faith, and with the restrictions and distance it weakened the overall community’s view towards the importance of religion in their Republic. Although many believe atheism only gained influence through atheist’s philosophers, the Czech Republic shows how their religious history shaped them to become “non-believers”. It was difficult to contest ancient religions with strict governments in the earlier centuries, yet in present day the internet and more media has weakened the barrier to voicing independent opinions. With the younger generations of atheists and secularized populace it is safe to say they are growing due to the New Atheism philosophers which will be discussed later in the prompt.