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→The Historical Record
Studying atheism can be very frustrating for the historian – all those who did not believe in a state’s religion (in Britain’s case this was Anglicanism) were generally considered atheists, while, for the most part, these people were simply deists (deists believe that God created the universe, but reject the idea that God intervenes in everyday life), non-conformists, and believers of other various Christian or Abrahamic religions. Atheism was seen not as a rejection of religious belief, but rather as a serious crime in that non-Anglican beliefs were considered a rejection of morality and national identity. In the nineteenth century, atheism was a theological, moral, and legal problem – such beliefs were not confined to the realm of personal philosophy.
Another prevalent oversight of historical studies of atheism is that scholars automatically assume that irreligion was only a working-class phenomenon, as the British working classes were those who had the most grievances against the government. The problem with associating atheism almost exclusively with the lower orders is that the historiography on the subject cites moral philosophy and social theories published by men of primarily upper-class standing as the primary catalyst of atheistic ideologies. Most historians believe that atheistic thought originated among the higher orders, and subsequently made its way down into working-class periodicals and newspapers via a ‘trickle"trickle-down’ down" effect. This, however, is far from true. While Victorian “gentlemen” might’ve fashioned their private beliefs concerning Christianity’s relevance after reading such social theorists/philosophers as Thomas Paine or David Hume, the literate working classes were forming their own religious philosophies based upon entirely different sources (i.e. penny periodicals).
Over the course of the nineteenth century, improvements in printing techniques and reductions on printing taxes had drastically lowered the cost of producing everything from daily newspapers to full-length books. Literacy rates were also going up. These factors paved the way for daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals aimed directly at the working classes, many of which were vehemently anti-establishment. In 1842, Charles Southwell, William Chilton, and John Field created the first avowedly atheist periodical in England, entitled the Oracle of Reason. Many similar periodicals followed, ranging from those who used science to rebuff religion, to those who manipulated working-class politics in ways that necessitated a rejection of religion.
