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POPULAR BELIEF AND UNBELIEF
But even here freethinking was at the beginning only a form
of opposition to the teaching of the Churches; that is, against
the traditional conceptions of the faith; or a protest against the
ineffectiveness of institutional religion. It became vulgar
atheism later on.
Unbelief is Not a Primary Product of Culture
It is incorrect to see in unbelief a primary product of cultural
development, but it cannot be denied that the situation which
makes unbelief discernible within a Christian social culture—
so that it takes definite shape as a distinct social phenomenon—
is the development of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
An historical development of this kind can go on for centuries
before its effects are made manifest in an upsurge of new ideas
and formulations that disturbs the balance of a nation’s soul.
Then it may break out violently as a revolutionary change of
world-view that shakes the social structure to its foundations.
Within the same community the result can be, on the one hand,
a sudden and terrible decline in spiritual values; and, on the
other hand, an equally sudden awareness of impending disaster
that prepares the way for a new and insurgent desire for personal
faith.
Unbelief defined as a practical denial of spiritual realities
and religious values, the antithesis of piety, is an individual
attitude and reaction having the attributes of a faith. As
a social-political movement it becomes a ‘compensation’ for
religion: a rationalisation of an otherwise unsatisfied innate
religious tendency or disposition. More or less consciously, it
attempts to assume the role of religion in society, but in a new
manner—and very often one that looks suspiciously like a
disguised cult.
H 113
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