September 1, 2010 • By K. Swann

A glance at the New York Times bestseller list or Amazon.com's most popular lists for the past couple years reveals a popular trend in religious thought. Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Sam Harris' Letters to a Christian Nation and Christopher Hitchens' book God is Not Great are all the work of pioneers in a movement that is being referred to as the 'New Atheism.'

They represent a brand of atheism that is no longer content with policing the boundaries between church and state or guarding against the big bad wolf of creationism in university classrooms. These are suave, devil-may care intellectuals committed to pushing atheism into the private sphere by denigrating religion in public.

In fact, atheism hardly seems an appropriate word for the movement. Hitchens, a journalist with Vanity Fair and author of such irreverent books as The Missionary Position (which claims to expose the epidemic of credulousness in the west by making a case study out of the public's failure to discern Mother Theresa's 'evil hidden agendas'), prefers to be referred to as an "ANTI-theist." Hitchens told NPR last year that he thinks religion is "sinister, dangerous and ridiculous" and told a crowd at the University of Toronto that he thinks "religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt."

Hitchens and his compatriots have spent much of the past few years riding the waves of the media to help gain momentum for their agenda. They have successfully turned events like the tragedy of September 11th and conflicts in the middle-east into propaganda for their claim that religious fundamentalism is an insidious poison that will destroy culture if it isn't eradicated.

These broad dismissals of religion on the basis of extreme acts of violence come with no disclaimers regarding peaceful religious groups such as Buddhist fundamentalists, nor do they come with apologies for the violence wrought of atheist regimes (such as Pol Pot who killed approximately 2 million, or the contemporary regime of Kim Jong Il). This may very well be because these anti-theists are not actually committed to carefully considering the difficult questions so innate to the crisis of human existence (questions of origin and purpose-something many atheists take extremely seriously), but are actually something of an extremist group themselves.

The Freethought Association, a national organization committed to fostering secularism in the United States, hosts de-baptism services, this according to the founder of the North Alabama chapter. In these ceremonies new unbelievers are de-baptized with blowdryers marked with the words "reason" and "logic." Sometimes the shriveled up converts even send certificates of their unbaptisms to their old congregations requesting their names be removed from the baptismal role.

In late September of last year atheists gathered in various places around the world to celebrate Blasphemy Day. De-baptisms charactarized these celebrations as well. Some groups even offered to trade in pornography for Bibles. The Center for Inquiry in Washington, D.C. hosted a celebratory group that displayed blasphemous paintings like Jesus Paints His Nails which, according to NPR news, displayed an effeminate Jesus using nail polish to paint the nails used to pin him to the cross. While these edgy tactics appeal to some atheists, others are pleased to distance themselves from the movement.

Stuart Jordan, who is the Science Adviser to the Center for Inquiry and an atheist, expressed concern to NPR that the 'New Atheism' is so critical that it "creates a vacuum" as it clearly expresses what these ANTI-theists are against, but says nothing of what they stand for. Jordan seems hopeful that more thoughtful, substantial and carefully communicated messages will characterize the dialogue between atheists and people with religious worldviews.

The 'New Atheists,' however, believe that these tactics are exactly what atheists need if they are to find themselves as no longer a minority group. According to CNN.com, Dawkins likens the social status of contemporary atheists to that of the gay community decades ago. He believes that as more atheists speak out, those in hiding (a number he estimates at 30 million in the U.S. alone) will "come out."

But Simon Hooper of CNN also reports that the "ICM Poll in 2004 found that 91 percent of Americans believed in the supernatural, 74 percent believed in an afterlife and 71 percent said they were willing to die for their beliefs." Hooper cites research from the University of Minnesota in 2009 that "identified atheists as the U.S.'s most distrusted minority." These statistics dispel some of Dawkins' assumptions and actually reveal somewhat of a religious revival in America.

It would do the 'New Atheists' well to heed some of the criticism coming from those in their own ranks. Otherwise Dawkins, Hitchens and their friends may find themselves pastorally responsible for a substantial group of young ANTI-theists whose ideals are characterized by ignorance, contempt and hatred. The very characteristics they seek to associate exclusively with religiosity.

 

 

K. Swann is a singer-songwriter in New York City with cutting edge thoughts on life, art and spirituality. He is currently studying Biblical Studies and Theology at Nyack College.

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