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New Atheism
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New Atheism
New Atheism or Neo-Atheism, sometimes referred to as scientific atheism, is a 21st-century movement attributed to some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers opposed to superstition, religion, and irrationalism. New Atheists advocate the antitheist view that the various forms of theism should be examined, countered by rational and scientific arguments, and criticised, especially when they exert strong influence on the broader society, such as in government, education, and politics.
Major figures of New Atheism include Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, sometimes collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen" of the movement. Proponents of the New Atheist movement have experienced criticism from academics and other atheists.
The term New Atheism is usually traced to Gary Wolf's 2006 Wired article "The Church of the Non-Believers", in which he introduced the label in a critical context and portrayed writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett as unusually strident and combative critics of religion. Scholars have often treated it as a label that emerged from media discussion rather than as the name of a clearly defined school of thought. James E. Taylor writes that the label arose from journalistic commentary on books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens, while Christopher R. Cotter describes the early discussion of New Atheism as "scholarly, but largely journalistic". Thomas Zenk likewise argues that New Atheism is an umbrella term rooted in public discourse and cautions against using it uncritically as an analytical category; he also notes that the label does not necessarily correspond to the self-identification of those to whom it is applied. Steven Kettell argues that the label's popularisation was not merely descriptive, but also encouraged the view that a small group of atheist writers were both unusually militant and philosophically unoriginal.
Key figures associated with New Atheism include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The four are often collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen", an allusion to the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation. Before her 2023 conversion to Christianity, writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali was sometimes referred to as the fifth "Horseman" or "Horsewoman" of New Atheism.
Harris's 2004 book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, a bestseller in the United States, was joined over the next couple of years by a series of bestsellers by atheist authors. Harris was motivated by the events of 11 September 2001, for which he blamed Islam, while also directly criticizing Christianity and Judaism. Two years later, Harris followed up with Letter to a Christian Nation, which was a severe criticism of Christianity. Later Harris wrote several bestselling non-fiction books including The Moral Landscape, and Waking Up, along with two shorter works (initially published as e-books) Free Will and Lying.
Dawkins is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. In 2006, following his television documentary series The Root of All Evil?, he published The God Delusion, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 51 weeks. Dawkins writes in the introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of the book: "I don't object to the horseman label, by the way. I'm less keen on 'new atheist': it isn't clear to me how we differ from old atheists."
On 30 September 2007, Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and Dennett met at Hitchens' residence in Washington, D.C., for a private two-hour unmoderated round table discussion. The event was videotaped and titled "The Four Horsemen". During "The God Debate" in 2010 with Hitchens versus Dinesh D'Souza, the group was collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse".
Hitchens, the author of God Is Not Great, was named among the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. He served on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. In 2010, Hitchens published his memoir Hitch-22 (a nickname provided by close personal friend Salman Rushdie, whom Hitchens always supported during and following The Satanic Verses controversy). Shortly after its publication, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which led to his death in December 2011. Before his death, Hitchens published a collection of essays and articles in his book Arguably; a short edition, Mortality, was published posthumously in 2012. These publications and numerous public appearances provided Hitchens with a platform to remain an astute atheist during his illness, even speaking specifically on the culture of deathbed conversions and condemning attempts to convert the terminally ill, which he opposed as "bad taste".
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New Atheism
New Atheism or Neo-Atheism, sometimes referred to as scientific atheism, is a 21st-century movement attributed to some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers opposed to superstition, religion, and irrationalism. New Atheists advocate the antitheist view that the various forms of theism should be examined, countered by rational and scientific arguments, and criticised, especially when they exert strong influence on the broader society, such as in government, education, and politics.
Major figures of New Atheism include Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, sometimes collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen" of the movement. Proponents of the New Atheist movement have experienced criticism from academics and other atheists.
The term New Atheism is usually traced to Gary Wolf's 2006 Wired article "The Church of the Non-Believers", in which he introduced the label in a critical context and portrayed writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett as unusually strident and combative critics of religion. Scholars have often treated it as a label that emerged from media discussion rather than as the name of a clearly defined school of thought. James E. Taylor writes that the label arose from journalistic commentary on books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens, while Christopher R. Cotter describes the early discussion of New Atheism as "scholarly, but largely journalistic". Thomas Zenk likewise argues that New Atheism is an umbrella term rooted in public discourse and cautions against using it uncritically as an analytical category; he also notes that the label does not necessarily correspond to the self-identification of those to whom it is applied. Steven Kettell argues that the label's popularisation was not merely descriptive, but also encouraged the view that a small group of atheist writers were both unusually militant and philosophically unoriginal.
Key figures associated with New Atheism include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The four are often collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen", an allusion to the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation. Before her 2023 conversion to Christianity, writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali was sometimes referred to as the fifth "Horseman" or "Horsewoman" of New Atheism.
Harris's 2004 book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, a bestseller in the United States, was joined over the next couple of years by a series of bestsellers by atheist authors. Harris was motivated by the events of 11 September 2001, for which he blamed Islam, while also directly criticizing Christianity and Judaism. Two years later, Harris followed up with Letter to a Christian Nation, which was a severe criticism of Christianity. Later Harris wrote several bestselling non-fiction books including The Moral Landscape, and Waking Up, along with two shorter works (initially published as e-books) Free Will and Lying.
Dawkins is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. In 2006, following his television documentary series The Root of All Evil?, he published The God Delusion, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 51 weeks. Dawkins writes in the introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of the book: "I don't object to the horseman label, by the way. I'm less keen on 'new atheist': it isn't clear to me how we differ from old atheists."
On 30 September 2007, Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and Dennett met at Hitchens' residence in Washington, D.C., for a private two-hour unmoderated round table discussion. The event was videotaped and titled "The Four Horsemen". During "The God Debate" in 2010 with Hitchens versus Dinesh D'Souza, the group was collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse".
Hitchens, the author of God Is Not Great, was named among the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. He served on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. In 2010, Hitchens published his memoir Hitch-22 (a nickname provided by close personal friend Salman Rushdie, whom Hitchens always supported during and following The Satanic Verses controversy). Shortly after its publication, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which led to his death in December 2011. Before his death, Hitchens published a collection of essays and articles in his book Arguably; a short edition, Mortality, was published posthumously in 2012. These publications and numerous public appearances provided Hitchens with a platform to remain an astute atheist during his illness, even speaking specifically on the culture of deathbed conversions and condemning attempts to convert the terminally ill, which he opposed as "bad taste".