The UK is a Christian country and those who deny it are "deluding themselves" and ignoring "reality", two senior Conservative MPs have said.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph modern Britain had "Christian heritage".
Last week David Cameron said Britons should be "more confident about our status as a Christian country".
But a group of public figures objected and said the PM could cause "division".
Mr Grieve, a patron of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said atheism had not made "much progress" in the UK.
"Many of the underlying ethics of society are Christian-based and the result of 1,500 years of Christian input into our national life," he said.
"It is not going to disappear overnight. They [atheists] are deluding themselves."
'Fundamentalism' fearMr Grieve went on to say that there had been a rise in the "assertiveness" of some religious groups, which some people with "softer religions" had found "disturbing".
"I do think that the rise of religious fundamentalism is a major deterrent to people," he said.
"It is a big turn-off away from religion generally, and it's very damaging in that context."
Mr Duncan Smith said claims that Britain was not a Christian country were "absurd" and ignored "both historical and constitutional reality".
"It is arguably our Christian heritage, with its innate tolerance and inclusivity, that has ensured the freedom of all voices - religious or non-religious - to be heard and to be valued," he said.
Their comments come after criticism of Mr Cameron, who said people should be "more confident" in defending "Christian values".
A group including academics, authors and philosophers responded in an open letter to the Telegraph in which they said Mr Cameron's description of Britain as a Christian country had "negative consequences for politics and society".
The group, which included author Philip Pullman, comedian Tim Minchin and philosopher AC Grayling, wrote: "Repeated surveys, polls and studies show that most of us as individuals are not Christian in our beliefs or our religious identities."
They added that claiming Britain was a religious society "fosters alienation and division".
The 2011 census found 59% of people in England and Wales said they were Christians - down from 72% a decade earlier.
In Scotland the figure was 54% - down from 65% - while the percentage fell slightly to 83% in Northern Ireland.
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