Taking it further: new atheism

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Taking it further new atheism
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The new atheism (1)

• New atheism religion should not simply be
  tolerated but should be countered, criticized,
  and exposed by rational argument wherever its
  influence arises. (Hooper, S.)
• The Four Horsemen of New Atheism Dawkins, R.,
  Dennett, D., Harris, S., Hitchens, C.
• The End of Faith Religion, Terror, and the
  Future of Reason (2004) by Sam Harris, was a
  bestseller in the USA and was motivated by the
  events of 11 September 2001, which he blamed
  directly on Islam.
• In 2006 Richard Dawkins published The God
  Delusion. Other atheist authors include Dennet,
  C.C., Stengerm, V.J., Hitchens, C., Onfray, M.
  and Barker, D.

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The new atheism (2)

• Tom Flyn wrote a newspaper column Why I Dont
  Believe in the New Atheism in 2010 in which he
  said that New Atheism was neither new nor a
  movement but simply the publishing of atheist
  material by well-known publishers.
• Most of new atheist thought comes from
  scientists. Dawkins argues that the God
  Hypothesis is valid scientifically and can be
  tested and falsified.
• He argues that naturalism is sufficient to
  explain everything in the universe, from the
  galaxies to the origins of life. Among others, he
  argues that there is no need for God in order for
  people to understand reality.

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The new atheism (3)

• New atheism employs the Argument from Divine
  Hiddenness and the idea that Absence of
  evidence is evidence of absence.
• In line with their scientific approach, new
  atheists believe that religious claims such as
  the virgin birth of Jesus, the afterlife and the
  power of intercessory prayer can all be tested
  scientifically and that all fail.

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Incompatible properties argument

• Stengerm argues that a God who is omniscient,
  omnibenevolent and omnipotent cannot logically
  exist.

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NOMA

• NOMA the two views of non-overlapping magisteria
  proposed by S. J. Gould concern the existence of
  a domain where one form of teaching holds the
  appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and
  resolution. He argues that science and religion
  should be confined to distinct non-overlapping
  domains science the empirical realm and religion
  with questions of ultimate meaning and moral
  value.
• New atheism has argued that NOMA does not
  describe empirical facts about the intersection
  of science and religion.
• Dawkins, in The God Delusion, contends that the
  Abrahamic religions deal in scientific matters.

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Criticisms of new atheism (1)

• Cardinal William Levada, who served under Pope
  Benedict XVI as prefect of the congregation for
  the doctrine of the faith, stated that new
  atheism misrepresented the doctrines of the
  Church and argued that it was the main cause of
  discrimination against Christians.
• The sociologist William Stahl wrote What is
  striking about the current debate is the
  frequency with which the New Atheists are
  portrayed as mirror images of religious
  fundamentalists. (One-Dimensional Rage The
  Social Epistemology of the New Atheism and
  Fundamentalism, 2010)

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Criticisms of new atheism (2)

• Some writers have accused the New Atheist
  movement of Islamophobia.
• Jacoby, W. and Yavuz, H. state that a group of
  new atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam
  Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have invoked
  Samuel Huntingtons clash of civilizations
  theory to explain the current political
  contestation and that this forms part of a trend
  toward Islamophobiain the study of Muslim
  societies. (Modernization, Identity and
  Integration An Introduction to the Special Issue
  on Islam in Europe, Journal of Muslim Minority
  Affairs 28(1)1)