Atheism is Not Communism

The Cold War was over a long time ago, bro

Feb 18, 2025

This article originally appeared on Medium.

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The association between atheism and communism is one of the most persistent misconceptions in American discourse. This idea, deeply rooted in Cold War propaganda, has led many to equate disbelief in God with adherence to communism.

However, atheism and communism are not synonymous. Understanding their distinction requires examining both historical context and ideological foundations, including how Cold War-era policies that injected religion into national identity inadvertently laid the groundwork for modern Christian nationalism.

The “Godless Communist” and the Birth of Christian Nationalism

The phrase “godless communist” became a staple of American rhetoric during the early Cold War, but its impact extended far beyond geopolitical posturing. In the 1950s, the U.S. government actively fused religious language with patriotism to contrast itself with the atheist Soviet Union.

Congress added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and adopted “In God We Trust” as the national motto in 1956. These were not merely symbolic gestures, rather they were strategic tools to frame American identity as inherently religious, and specifically Christian.

This conflation of faith and patriotism did more than demonize communism, it sowed the seeds for Christian nationalism, the belief that America is ordained by God to be a Christian nation.

By embedding religious language into civic rituals, policymakers blurred the line between church and state, creating a template for future movements that would weaponize faith to exclude “un-American” ideologies (or people).

As historian Kevin Kruse notes, this era transformed religion into a “weaponized political identity,” where loyalty to God and country became inseparable.

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The Irony of Historical Revisionism

This narrative ignores an obvious irony: the United States was explicitly not founded as a Christian nation. The Founding Fathers, many of whom were Deists, Unitarians, or critics of organized religion, designed a secular government.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote of “a wall of separation between Church and State,” while John Adams declared the U.S. government “in no sense founded on the Christian religion.” The Treaty of Tripoli (1797), ratified unanimously by the Senate, stated plainly that America “is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Yet this history is conspicuously absent from modern Christian nationalist rhetoric. Cold War-era revisions of American identity overwrote the Enlightenment secularism of the Founders, replacing it with a mythos of divine destiny.

This revisionism now fuels efforts to enshrine Christianity in law, from Ten Commandments displays in classrooms to claims that the First Amendment protects only “Christian freedoms.”

The Persistent Myth of Christian Nationalism

The myth endures because it serves a purpose. By conflating atheism with communism, Christian nationalists reinforce a binary worldview: Either you’re with God and America, or you’re against both. This rhetoric mirrors Cold War tactics, where dissenters were branded “un-American” for questioning religious or political orthodoxy.

Today, figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warn of “atheist socialists” seeking to “destroy our way of life,” recycling McCarthyist tropes to paint secularism as a threat to national identity.

This narrative also ignores thriving secular democracies like Sweden and Japan, where high rates of non-belief coexist with strong social cohesion.

Worse, it distracts from the dangers of conflating faith with governance, a hallmark of Christian nationalism.

When “In God We Trust” is etched onto courthouses or lawmakers cite the Bible to justify policies, it reinforces the idea that American legitimacy hinges on Christianity, alienating non-Christians and non-believers alike.

Separating Fact from Fiction

Atheism is not communism, nor is it anti-American. It is a single answer to a single question: “Do you believe in a deity?”

The Cold War’s fusion of religion and patriotism, however, created a lasting blueprint for Christian nationalism, one that equates secularism with subversion and faith with fidelity to the state.

Dismantling this myth requires recognizing that atheism and authoritarianism are no more linked than Christianity and democracy.

Rejecting belief in God does not mean embracing communism, or rejecting American values. It simply means one does not believe in deities.

The rest is politics.

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