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The New Atheism

A Catholic Clergyman Responds to the New Atheists

by Rev. Dylan Schrader

Richard Dawkins and I have something in common. Like Dawkins, I am convinced that people need to put aside all superstition and learn to think critically. Unlike Dawkins, I am about to be ordained a Catholic priest.

Along with other leaders among the New Atheists, Dawkins holds not only that there is no God but also that belief in God is harmful and disposes one to violent fanaticism. The New Atheists also characterize faith in itself as “lacking objective justification” (Dawkins) and therefore dangerous.

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