Premodern Non-Believers Part 1: Can Ancient People Reject Modern Thoughts?

Introduction

This course has focused on phenomena categorized as religion, especially world religions. Now, it explores those considered non-religious.
Non-religious Definitions:
- Atheism: Belief that no god or divine being exists.
- Skepticism: Doubt regarding religious claims.
- Non-belief/Unbelief/Disbelief: Strong negation of religious truths.
- Infidelity (Medieval term): Lack of fidelity to a cause or belief.
- Secularism: Differentiation between religion and non-religion.
- Humanism: Human thought and experience prioritized over the divine.
- Free thought: Unconstrained thinking, often non-religious.
- Rationalism: World works in a regular way, understandable by human reason.

Challenges of Applying Modern Terms to Ancient Contexts

Ancient expressions of these concepts differ due to the lack of a clear notion of 'religion' as understood today.
Terms like religion come from a relatively recent development in Western history.
Ancient rational, humanist, and free thought concepts exist but are more about actions than belief.

Irreligion in the Ancient Indian Subcontinent

Hinduism and Buddhism:
- Dharma and Adharma: How the universe works and living in harmony with it.
- Early Buddhists questioned systems like the caste system, suggesting irreligious tendencies.
- Upanishadic interpretations diverged from original Vedic teachings, showing a form of irreligion.
Atheistic Tendencies:
- Many forms reject the material existence of gods or see gods as irrelevant.
- Samkhya School:
  - Universe explained through Prakriti (matter) and Purusha (consciousness).
  - No need for gods to explain existence.
  - humanism?
- Mimamsa School:
  - Critical of the gods’ influence on human affairs.
  - Emphasizes human experience and thriving.
- Jainism:
  - Rejects creator deities, focuses on non-violence and karma/dharma.
  - humanism- there are gods but not transcendent gods, but no others really fit.

Irreligion in the Ancient Mediterranean

Ancient Mediterranean often associated irreligion with philosophy rather than religion.
Philosophy:
- Pursuit of truth wherever found, including beyond the gods.
- Built-in negation of some religious thoughts and activities.
  - rationalism?
Christianity:
- Early Christians were labeled atheists because they didn’t worship Roman gods.
Socratic and Epicurean Thought:
- Socrates was guided by a personal god; Plato critiqued mythology for its portrayal of gods.
- Epicurus:
  - Universe controlled by material forces, no need for divine beings to explain natural laws.
  - Gods exist, but they are bound by material laws, rendering worship unnecessary.
  - try to be tranquil and content with the universe and not be bothered by pain and suffering because the world is controlled by material things, forces called gods, but they are irrelevant from people.

Conclusion

These ancient expressions of irreligion often foreshadow modern concepts but don't align with terms like atheism or secularism.
Without a notion of religion, irreligion as understood today didn't exist.
Modern irreligion is culturally and temporally specific, intertwined with practices, morality, and society.
Further exploration is needed into how non-religious phenomena can be identified before the modern concept of religion emerged.
Discussion Questions for Class:
- How can we talk about irreligion and its modern labels?
- Why don't these labels fit when discussing the ancient past?
- What kinds of irreligion can be identified in ancient India and the Mediterranean?

The lecture explores the difficulty of applying modern understandings of "irreligion" to ancient cultures. Modern labels like atheism, secularism, skepticism, humanism, and freethought all presuppose a concept of "religion" that didn't exist in the same way in ancient times. These terms emerged from specific historical and cultural contexts, primarily within Western thought after the Protestant Reformation. They emphasize individual belief and thought over community practice, which wasn't the central focus of ancient worldviews.

Therefore, applying these terms retroactively risks misinterpreting ancient practices and beliefs by forcing them into modern categories. Ancient individuals might have held views that we would consider irreligious, but they didn't necessarily define themselves or their actions in those terms.

In the ancient Indian subcontinent, "irreligion" might manifest in various ways:

Questioning established systems: Early Buddhists’ rejection of the caste system exemplifies a challenge to existing social and religious structures. This reflects a form of questioning authority, even if not framed as "atheism" in our sense.
Reinterpreting religious texts: The Upanishadic sages’ reinterpretations of the Vedas showcase how existing beliefs could be reinterpreted in ways that differed significantly from the original meanings, a form of internal critique.
Emphasis on practice over belief in deities: Certain schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, like Samkhya and Mimamsa, focus on material reality and human experience, minimizing the role of gods in their worldview, although this wasn't necessarily framed as "atheism" by the individuals themselves.
Jainism: This tradition explicitly rejects creator deities, focusing on self-discipline, non-violence, and karma, demonstrating a different approach to spirituality than traditional theistic religions.

In the ancient Mediterranean, "irreligion" is even more challenging to define:

Philosophy as a critique: Early philosophies, while often incorporating divine elements, offered alternative ways of understanding the world, sometimes implicitly challenging traditional religious views and practices.
The case of Christians: Early Christians were deemed "atheists" by the Romans for refusing to participate in the Roman state religion, highlighting the political and social dimension of "irreligion." This shows how the label itself was a tool used to define social and political opposition, not necessarily a reflection of the Christians' internal beliefs.
Epicureanism: This philosophy focused on material reality and the pursuit of pleasure, minimizing the importance of the gods, although not denying their existence entirely, highlighting a different path toward a good life. However, again, this should not be applied retroactively without considering the context.