Atheist universities and colleges

While numerous Catholic, Protestant and Jewish universities and colleges have been founded throughout the Western World, not a single atheist university and atheist college has ever been founded in the Western World - not even in secular Europe and irreligious Australia.

However, the atheistic Soviet Union did establish the Communist Academy which included the following institutes: philosophy, history, literature, art, language, law, economics, natural sciences and other topical areas (Communism was explicitly atheistic, see: Atheism and communism).

According to Wesylan University:

“  |  The university is one example. The earliest universities, in early medieval Italy, trained their students in canon law; subsequently theology came to be studied, and then the humanities. Almost every university and college founded in the U.S. and Europe until the mid-19th century—and many afterwards—was founded by some religious organization (including Wesleyan, of course). The degree of control exercised by these varied, but it is safe to say that no college or university has been unaffected by the Christian background of the university.[1] |  ”

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Many of the oldest universities in the United States and England were established as religious, educational institutions to train ministers.

## Most American professors at elite research institutions believe God exists[edit]

The abstract for the 2009 academic journal article The Religiosity of American College and University Professors which was published in the journal Sociology of Religion (which is published by the Oxford University Press) indicates:

“  |  For more than a century most U.S. colleges and universities have functioned as secular institutions. But how religious are American college and university faculty in their personal lives? We answer this question by analyzing data from a new, nationally representative survey of the American professoriate. Contrary to the view that religious skepticism predominates in the academy, we find that the majority of professors, even at elite research institutions, are religious believers. We go on to examine the distribution of faculty religiosity across institutions, fields, and other variables, and identify a number of issues that future research—sensitive to the fact that religious faith and academic life, at least in the American context, are by no means mutually exclusive—should take up.[2] |  ”

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## See also[edit]

* Atheist hospitals

* Religion and education

* Atheist indoctrination

* Atheism and academic performance

* Atheism and science

* Atheism and historical illiteracy

* Atheist community and verbal–linguistic intelligence

* Atheist art

## References[edit]

1. ↑ CHRISTIANITY’S ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN INSTITUTIONS
2. ↑ The Religiosity of American College and University Professors, Sociology of Religion, Oxford University Press, 2009