New Atheism
(→Not New Atheists) |
|||
| Line 34: | Line 34: | ||
* [[Bertrand Russell]] | * [[Bertrand Russell]] | ||
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] | * [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] | ||
| − | * [[ | + | * [[Karl Marx]] |
* [[Jean Meslier]] | * [[Jean Meslier]] | ||
Revision as of 23:28, 17 February 2011
| The Atheist's Guide To |
| Key concepts |
| More about atheism |
| Notable atheists |
New Atheism refers to a recent movement of outspoken atheists as authors and speakers. The underlying philosophies and arguments for the New Atheists are generally consistent with their predecessors, and so the label of "new" is often considered to refer to a difference in style, or level of outspokenness only. Many anti-religious authors have gathered much media attention, particularly since around the year 2000, and indeed some prefer to call New Atheism a media trend rather than a real organized movement.
The movement may be contrasted with accommodationism which suggests that some common ground may be found between those who have less "extreme" supernatural beliefs and those who expose a belief in reality.
Contents |
The definitions
Quite what the distinction actually is between a contemporary atheist and a historical atheist isn't totally clear - its use is usually restricted to blogs and opinion columns and is mostly used pejoratively. Some supposed differences are mentioned; usually something about how they are so "angry", "shrill", "forceful" or possibly "eat children". Indeed, it is quite true that Richard Dawkins is quite uncompromising in his atheist writings (people often forget that he has - so far - only written one book on the subject, although there are several more debunking creationism) but he is no more open about the subject that historical atheists, or at least the ones not born in a time where being an atheist could have you tortured or killed. Victor Strenger has defined it as the "harder line"[1] while Andrew Brown prefers to categorise them as "not being philosophers".[2] Which is quite amusing since, y'know, Daniel Dennett...
The trend
The "new atheist" phenomenon may not really be a set of people which have come into a new existence (so-called "second generation" atheists that grew up in non-religious households), but rather a media trend in which outspoken atheist views, particularly views explicitly critical of religion, have become more acceptable to print. This has caused an increase in atheistic writing breaking through into mainstream periodicals, prominent display in bookstores, and at least one documentary film on the BBC - the whole thing can actually be quite a lucrative business, which is possibly the cause of a lot of the harsh criticism of the authors.[3] The need for the media to provoke and attract attention may have driven this, religion has always been a touchy and controversial topic and books with titles such as God Is Not Great and The God Delusion certainly attract the sort of hard-hitting controversy that sells well - even if their contents aren't as angry as the titles suggest.
This has been explained - in the US, at least, but also perhaps worldwide - as a backlash response to the massively unpopular George W. Bush presidency, with its fundamentalist religious base; stories that "God told Bush to invade Iraq" didn't help. The raising of fundamentalist religion into the mainstream consciousness was also assisted by the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, which cemented into popular perception how powerful belief can be. The prominent highlighting of these negative aspects of religion most certainly aided the increased acceptance of religious criticism and, by extension, atheism and anti-theism. The Atheist Bus Campaign, where the phrase "There's probably no God - Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." was displayed on prominent adverts, was originally invented as a response to a prominent display of religious advertising that claimed that non-believers would burn in hell.
The New Atheists
A group of authors and speakers, who came to prominence after the year 2000, are generally considered to be "New Atheists" - the top four in particular are sometimes referred to as "the four horsemen". They are also joined, in theory, by numerous individuals on YouTube who have used the medium of the Internet to publicize their views more easily and widely than was possible before the start of the 21st Century. A large number of atheistic websites and articles also appeared on the web during this same period.[4]
- See:
- Richard Dawkins
- Christopher Hitchens
- Sam Harris
- Daniel Dennett
- PZ Myers
- Victor J. Stenger
- Gregory House
Not New Atheists
In reality, outspoken atheism is nothing new. But the publicity thrown upon "new" atheists often clouds the scholarship preceding them.
- See:
External Links
- The Church of the Non-Believers, Wired, Issue 14.11, 2006
- The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it, The Guardian, Monday May 7, 2007
- Culture Watch: New Atheism
- New Atheism.org - a collection of links and articles on the subject
- Richard Dawkins discusses "new atheism"
See also
- Accommodationism
- Atheist bus campaign
- Antitheism
- Atheist thumper
- Atheist fundamentalism
- Brights
- Everlasting No