Causes of “New Atheism”

Causes

The reason for the popularity and sales success of these books has been attributed to various factors such as shock at the events of September 11th and subsequent terrorist attacks, outrage over the policies of President George W. Bush, and secular reaction against the bold pronouncements of American evangelical leaders. As for the motivation of the New Atheists themselves, some believers (and also some nonbelievers) are inclined to interpret the present renaissance of public atheism as a sort of panic on the part of the secularists, as they realise that faith remains a powerful force in the contemporary world.[1]

What is certain is that the events of September 11th directly inspired Sam Harris to write the first of these recent bestselling atheist works, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (2004). He began to write this book the day after the terror attacks on America, September 12th 2001, and in it he establishes his case that the values of the Western secular Enlightenment are under threat from religious extremism. What is new in Harris' book, and in the subsequent books of the New Atheists, is the vehemence with which religion is critiqued. These authors and their sympathisers typically see themselves in a battle for reason in a world full of religious superstition. In their view, unethical behaviour under the banner of religion (especially by Christians, Jews and Muslims) is the chief cause of some of the most dangerous global conflicts of recent years, and the greatest threat to the future survival of civilisation itself.

Bibliography

Footnotes

[1]↑ See Rachel Zoll's article 'Atheist authors grapple with believers' in the Los Angeles Times of 26 May 2007, republished on Sam Harris' website.

Top of Page