1/30/2008 – 1:03 am
It began with a high-profile Wired article describing a “new band of intellectual brothers” in 2006 entitled The Church of the Non-believers. This article heralded Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett as being the figureheads of a new mounting crusade against theism. These new renegade atheists, according to the author, are calling us all out and are shocking in that “they condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God.” And he takes it obnoxiously far in Wired fashion calling atheists lonely fundamentalists who do not doubt their own beliefs. In this article Gary Wolf wrote: “The New Atheists have castigated fundamentalism and branded even the mildest religious liberals as enablers of a vengeful mob. Everybody who does not join them is an ally of the Taliban. But, so far, their provocation has failed to take hold.”
Well that was 2006. It seems that the provocation is taking hold. Shortly after in early 2007 the Wall Street Journal ran the editorial Without God, Gall Is Permitted which disparages “shallow” modern-day atheists for not being charming enough. Sam Schulman writes “Modern atheists have no new arguments, and they lack their forebears’ charm.” Articles like this cast atheism as a group in society that has nefarious goals against the mainstream. Writers call the new atheists intolerant and angry. And they denounce the new atheists for not having any new ideas, but just recycling old philosophical arguments. A recent blog article written by Rev. Marty Fields, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, continues the public charge against angry atheists and describes atheists as inept, gasping for air, and desperate.
Recently, a book was released by Vox Day on the subject of New Atheism called The Irrational Atheist which devotes most of its pages to specifically discrediting Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins (notably absent from the harangue is Dennett). This book attempts to discredit Atheism with logic, moral arguments, and statistical evidence (such as the mind-bogglingly useless assertion that “Sexually abused girls are 55 times more likely to commit suicide than girls raised Catholic”). As though Atheism promotes the sexual abuse of girls. Overall the theme of this book is to make the case that decent moral and ethical behavior requires religious belief. Arguments of this sort attempt to make belief in Christian God an ethical issue, which it isn’t.
At the end of what Gary Wolf makes sound like a journey to the core of his being, he concludes these trivialities on the subject of New Atheism: “Myself, I’ve decided to refuse the call. The irony of the New Atheism - this prophetic attack on prophecy, this extremism in opposition to extremism - is too much for me.” Wolf makes New Atheism into something it’s not. A belief system. New Atheism is to me the same as old atheism. Since the Enlightenment some people have spoken up for the fact that they themselves have not found evidence of nor have experience with gods and superstition in the world. If New Atheism comes down purely to attitude, then even attitude is nothing new. Look at the passionate and eloquently outspoken Robert Ingersoll. Meet the New Atheists. Same as the old Atheists.
I contend New Atheism is a myth. Atheists are people who — for whatever reason — do not have belief in a deity. It would be identical to placing a label on people who do not collect butterflies. The idea that atheists are insincere or unethical because they do not see what theists see is immoral in itself. Atheism is and always has been a reaction to theism. The louder theism becomes, the louder atheism will need to become. If the government suddenly promoted a political agenda based around collecting stamps then those who disagreed would be cast as or identified as aphilatelists. The rise of so-called New Atheism can only be a result of a rise in religious fervor. In other words, there is no New Atheism. There is actually New Theism. And that is the real problem and should be the real focus. The label New Atheism is another smear campaign against people who simply say they do not see the invisible monster in the room. People like Gary Wolf are their enablers.
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