5 Things Few (If Any) Atheists Believe

2. That religion has made no positive contributions

Some atheists feel that religion has made no positive contributions to the world. Even Bertrand Russell, a pretty levelheaded guy on most days, credits religion only with establishing the calendar and encouraging the prediction of eclipses.

But most atheists, even those who feel religion is a bad influence overall, can usually think of more than that:

• You can’t talk about Martin Luther King, Jr., or read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” without recognizing that his religion was an important part of his work, identity, and inspiration.
• Catholic monks preserved the works of antiquity throughout the Middle Ages as an act of religious devotion.
• Many great artists and composers are inspired by their beliefs. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote Soli Deo Gloria (“For the Glory of God alone”) at the end of each of his compositions.
• Many Christian charities have done crucial work providing social services and support for those in need.
• Quaker activists have been at the forefront of every movement for peace and human rights in the past 200 years.
• Hinduism and Jainism have developed principles of nonviolence that have led to the peaceful resolution of countless conflicts, large and small.

You get the idea.

Some atheists would raise an objection here, saying these things shouldn’t be credited to religion but to human beings who happened to be religious, and who simply framed their creativity and their values in religious terms. But in addition to inspiring immoral acts at its worst, religion at its best can serve as a specific motivator and as inspiration for great things — even though it’s not the only worldview that does so.