The "New Atheists"

I decided to make a note of the following because I wanted to give the essay it's from more attention that I have available at the moment.

2007 was the year atheists in America came out of the closet. And indeed, a glance at the state of our world suggests this was a predictable response. We find ourselves in this young century in a climate of violence and confrontation which is undeniably inflamed by pious religious certainty. Over the past 25 to 30 years, people the world over have turned to fundamentalist religious ideologies which portray the modern, democratic, secular world as little more than a decadent realm of temptation and infuriatingly uppity women. This fundamentalist fervor has produced two equally frightening social phenomena. The first: a multitude of hoodwinked and angry young men desperate for a promised martyrdom. And, the second: a man in the White House who is so convinced that everything he does has divine sanction that his administration has actually used the term “reality-based” as a disparagement.

[David Gregory Moser, "Denying Absurdity", Open Letters Monthly, December 2007.]

Posted on December 13, 2007 at 19.10 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Common-Place Book

6 Responses

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  1. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Monday, 17 December 2007 at 00.02
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    I dislike the little trick of drawing equivalence between the current worldwide march of Islam and current Christianity in America. It is not an accurate comparison.

    Christianity is weakening. Atheism will fill some of the void, but it is a different animal.

    Christianity could barely stand up to Islam. I don't think secular atheism can stand up to Islam.

  2. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Monday, 17 December 2007 at 15.42
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    "Christianity is weakening."

    Based on . . . ?

  3. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Friday, 21 December 2007 at 22.14
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    There is some data that church activity is declining.
    One example.

    It seems to me public displays of Christendom are declining: Happy Holidays replacing Merry Christmas; the Creche as taboo; general tough scrutiny of religious, i.e. Christian, symbols in public life.

  4. Written by jns
    on Saturday, 22 December 2007 at 23.30
    Permalink

    I don't know that I was trying to draw a parallel between Islam and Christianity so much as looking at the centuries-old struggle for ascendancy between them, which each one seems to view as a titanic struggle of good vs. evil, and which I seem to view as mindless behemoths anyway.

    I'm inclined to agree that the power of religion is declining slowly — and it's about time! — although there seems to be a temporally localized resurgence here in the past 10 or 20 years. A death rattle perhaps? Depending on the time scale one considers, the conclusions can be different.

  5. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Sunday, 23 December 2007 at 20.58
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    >there seems to be a temporally localized resurgence here

    I'm thinking religious fervor, historically, follows a sine function. We are aghast at the excesses, but when it wanes, it leaves a void, that secularism can't seem to fill. Yet.

  6. Written by jns
    on Tuesday, 25 December 2007 at 00.26
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    Religious fervor certainly has seemed to oscillate throughout history. Naturally, I hope that the amplitude is on a trend of lessening, and I'm doing what I can to help secularism fill the perceived void.

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