Publish Date: April 8, 1966
Cover Story: Is God Dead?
How TIME Covered the News: Making use of the widely-quoted Nietzsche statement, the controversial cover story dove into the growing atheist movement in the U.S. The provocative question – TIME’s first cover design to feature only text — inspired thousands of angry comments from readers and backlash from the church.
“Nearly one of every two men on earth lives in thralldom to a brand of totalitarianism that condemns religion as the opiate of the masses—which has stirred some to heroic defense of their faith but has also driven millions from any sense of God’s existence. Millions more, in Africa, Asia and South America, seem destined to be born without any expectation of being summoned to the knowledge of the one God.”