(For previous posts in this series, see here.) In his BBC4 TV
documentary A Rough History of Atheism, Jonathan Miller points
out that by the end of the 18th century, while skepticism of god
and religion was gaining ground among the intellectuals and the
elites, and was probably secretly quite widespread, the spread
of atheism to the working classes was opposed (even by these
enlightened people) because the elites feared that it would
destroy the basis of their power. It was fine to discuss
atheistic ideas around their dinner tables as long as the
servants were not present. As James Mills said to his son, the
philosopher John Stuart Mill, “There is no god but it’s a family
secret.” Religion has also consistently been used as a tool of
oppression, from the colonization by Europe of Asia and Africa
and South America, to its use during slavery. It was
consistently used to divert the energies of the enslaved people
away from organizing to fight for their rights and freedom and
directed to accepting their lot as go