It was Karl Marx, author of “The Communist Manifesto”, who wrote that “religion…is the opium of the people" because it causes them to forget their current economic distress in favor of the illusion of future happiness.
But what about people living in economic prosperity, the comfortable “bourgeois” middle class? Why is it that the vast percentage of atheists I meet are people living with a relatively good measure of affluence? Most have enough of a religious background to be aware of personal sin, but are also educated enough to know that much of their prosperity is built on the backs of the poor as part of our global economy. Atheism becomes a convenient escape from the guilt of personal sin, and a moral high ground from which to criticize Christianity as part of an evil capitalist system. It is the opiate of the bourgeois.
At our local coffeeshop I found Mike, who doesn’t like the atheist label but has spent the last 20 years building up quite an arsenal of questions critical of Christianity. Our conversation felt like trying to drink from an open fire hydrant as it was hard to answer his questions before he would respond with several more. He enjoyed asking the questions far more than listening to an answer. But one thing was made clear – for someone who claimed to be interested in the truth, Mike has placed himself inside an echo chamber of atheistic arguments that only confirm his bias against Christianity.
As the laymen we really are, we were both just repeating evidence or arguments from our respective experts, usually in opposition to one another. For my part, frankly, I trust God-fearing experts far more than those whose agenda is to deny God’s existence. And while I am familiar with arguments in support of both Christianity and atheism, Mike for his part couldn’t think of any arguments in support of Christianity. To even consider such arguments would threaten his confirmation bias, and his atheistic doubts would no longer serve as the opiate they are designed to be.
There is comfort in atheism for the unforgiven sinner. It is much more comfortable to believe in non-existence after death than the thought of standing to give account before a holy God. And atheistic books, videos, websites and Facebook groups become the echo chambers / drug houses where self-medicating with atheistic opium provides a comfortable escape.
Of course, our churches all to often can be criticized for much the same reason, as “holy huddles” that offer an escape from the world, rather than as the place for worship and prayer and solid Bible teaching that should send us boldly out into the world on mission for the Gospel.
See my conversation with Mike at https://youtu.be/mT5yIttfx30 on my YouTube channel
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