“Crawling with Atheists”: Unbelief at Canadian Universities during the Sixties

Abstract

Canadian universities were regularly held to be seedbeds of atheism in the long sixties. This article interrogates that claim through an analysis of campus life at a selection of universities across Canada, with special attention given to the University of British Columbia. Drawing on campus publications, secular media sources, religious and humanist writings, and oral histories, this article shows that unbelief was openly discussed and addressed in neutral, sometimes positive, tones on a number of university campuses in Canada during that era. While university life contributed to the gradual erosion of the stigma against unbelief, the persistence of that stigma is evident in the lingering discomfort and periodic controversies associated with atheism on campus. The universities examined here were not crawling with atheists, but they did widen platforms and possibilities for challenging religious belief and helped to un-silence atheism during a period of significant religious change in Canada.