Evolution Is the Doorway to Atheism
by Dr Jerry Bergman
A new study published in Scientific American this month has confirmed what Darwinism critics have been saying for some time: Darwinism is the doorway to atheism. The study, completed by the Cooperative Research Program, surveyed more than 137,000 freshmen students at 184 U.S. colleges. The study concluded that college freshmen are less religious than ever before, and “Data from a nationwide survey show students who list their affiliation as ‘none’ has skyrocketed” [1]. The number of college students that claimed no religious affiliation, called the “Nones,” has tripled from 10 percent in 1986 to 31 percent in 2016. The mid-1980s was about the time when court rulings against those who doubt Darwinism began losing over and over. Concurrently, school boards began to increase their coverage of Darwinism in the curricula. These two trends would have started about the time to affect students in government schools. The retreat from Christianity began around 1990 when these students entered college, starting the trend we see today.
Charles Darwin’s 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species was the greatest scripture-killer ever penned.
Support for the thesis that Darwinism is the doorway to atheism also comes from church statistics. Those denominations that do not support creationism or Intelligent Design account for much of the slide away from Christianity. For example, most of the increase in the “Nones” occurred at the expense of both Catholicism, which dropped from 32 percent to 23 percent, and mainstream Protestantism (Baptists from 17% to 7%, and Methodists from 9% to 3%). Interestingly, the number of students choosing “other Christian” (non-Catholic and non-mainline Protestant) actually increased from 5% to 13% during this same period.
The slide into unbelief is also related to the type of college. The percent of “Nones” is higher at state universities (36%) than at four-year colleges (26%), mostly because colleges compared to universities are more likely to be religiously affiliated (only 17% of students at colleges listed themselves as Nones). Lastly, the proportion of students who reported attending religious services at least occasionally since 1990 has dropped from 85% to 69%.
Another study of the beliefs of academics published in Nature supports the above study. [2] Generally, those on the left politically are more likely to be atheist or agnostic, and those self-labeled ‘middle of the road’ to conservative are more likely to believe in God and also are more religious. Over 90% of professors of sociology (9,717), physics (9,316), and astronomy (574) are self-identified as left-leaning compared to around 70% or less of professors in chemistry (12,930), math (16,893), and economics. No doubt the professors’ beliefs are very influential in affecting their students’ beliefs.
The third line of evidence that Darwinism is the doorway the atheism are case studies. With little difficulty, I was able to obtain 52 case studies of well-known persons including Einstein, Darwin, Freud, Marx and many leading professors, that support my thesis. These are documented in a book that I hope will be out in a few months titled Darwinism is the Doorway to Atheism: Why Creationists Become Evolutionists, 52 Case Histories. The fact that Darwinism is the doorway to atheism is well-documented. As stated by one of the leading evolutionists in America today, University of Chicago Professor Jerry Coyne:
Charles Darwin’s 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species was the greatest scripture-killer ever penned. The book demolished … an entire series of biblical claims by demonstrating that purely naturalistic processes—evolution and natural selection—could explain patterns in nature previously explainable only by invoking a Great Designer. [3]
As investigator Dr. Jonathan Kelley added, in becoming a None “The single most important influence after church attendance is [the acceptance of] the theory of evolution.” [4] We can see the results of this conclusion are played out in the lives of millions of students in America today.
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- Downey, Allen. “College Freshmen Are Less Religious Than Ever.” Scientific American. May 25, 2017.
- Reardon, Nancy. 18 Oct 2016. “The Scientists who support Donald Trump.” Nature 538:298-299.
- Coyne, Jerry. Fact vs. Faith. New York: Viking, 2015, p. 2.
- The Australian, February 1, 2000, p. 6.
Dr Jerry Bergman, professor, speaker, and author of numerous books and scientific papers, is a contributing writer for CEH. See his Author Profile for previous articles by Dr. Bergman.