'New Atheist' Goals

New Atheist Goals

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Articles - New Atheism

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The New Atheists are typically concerned with defending (at least) the following theses:

It is almost certain that there is no God.
Religions are dangerous and do not automatically deserve respect.
Religious belief has a naturalistic evolutionary explanation.
Belief in God and evolution are not compatible.
Religion tends to subvert science.
An autonomous secular morality is possible; morality does not presuppose God.
Life is not meaningless without belief in God.
Atheism is not discredited by the 'atheist tyranny of Stalin.'
Religious education of children is 'child abuse'.

The contemporary atheist backlash can be understood as an attempt to achieve at least two social goals: firstly, to guarantee the integrity and safety of science in society (and its promotion); secondly, to strongly discourage religion and encourage its obsolescence (or at least privatisation) in order to safeguard the rule of secular law, to which New Atheists believe religion poses a threat. At the root of this is a concern that religion is anti-intellectual (irrational), authoritarian, and violent, thus posing a threat to liberty and security. The New Atheists typically understand themselves as completing the (interrupted) project of the European radical Enlightenment.

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