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The New Atheism

The Not So New Atheists?

Jon Wainwright considers the resonance of a Victorian ‘ethics of belief’ debate.

We know that ‘new’ is a favourite word of politicians and those with a product to sell; but of philosophers too? Philosophers revere the old almost as much as theologians do, and, although many philosophers are atheists, atheism does not have the cachet of, or indeed as many syllables as, for example, existentialism. (In a nonscientific sampling of a couple of dictionaries of philosophy, atheism commanded a fraction of the column inches of existentialism. Even Augustine garnered more attention.) So, what to make of New Atheism?

In his book The New Atheism (2009), physicist Victor Stenger recognizes a growing phenomenon in the United States which “has driven Christian apologists to distraction.” He quotes the Christian writer Becky Garrison, who contrasts the “old-school atheists” arriving at their conclusions after “some angst-ridden anxiety and serious soul-searching” with “this current crop of anti-God guys giggling like schoolgirls” (p.

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