The Humanistischer Pressedienst Web site has introduced to the German audience the group of writers known as the New Atheists. This includes the writers such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) Sam Harris (The End of Faith), and Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell). I have read the books by both Harris and Dawkins. Last week this illustrious group was joined by the drunken Trotskyist neocon Christopher Hitchens, with his contribution God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. I have not yet had the pleasure of reading this, but I understand that Hitchens manages to insult both Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
German readers are probably wondering what is so unusual about books on atheism, but in the US it is a big deal. According to nearly every poll on the issue, approximately 9 out of 10 Americans believe in God. Americans are more likely to vote for a one-legged transvestite for President than for an avowed atheist. Last week we watched the Republican candidates for president all discuss their belief in God (and the divinity of Ronald Reagan), and several of them renounced the science of evolution. So the phenomenon of the New Atheism is a reaction to the pervasive religiosity of American culture. Writers such as Dawkins and Harris are not so much interested in discussing or debating faith, but rather ridiculing all religious belief. Madeleine Bunting, writing in the Guardian puts her finger on it:
"What they all have in common is a loathing of an increasing religiosity in US politics, which has contributed to a disastrous presidency and undermined scientific understanding. Dennett excoriates the madness of a faith that looks forward to the end of the world and the return of the messiah. What Dawkins hates is that most Americans still haven’t accepted evolution and support the teaching of intelligent design; according to one poll, 50% of the US electorate believe the story of Noah. He argues that "there is nothing to choose between the Afghan Taliban and the American Christian equivalent … The genie of religious fanaticism is rampant in present-day America."
Most Americans of faith that I know are not the cartoon-like religious fanatics depicted by Harris and Hitchens. Rather, they have come to their faith via a long journey formed by life experience and often through many periods of questioning and denial. They are unlikely to be persuaded by the strident rhetoric of the New Atheists.
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I think Hitchens has made an ideology of attention-whoring, hence his trying to cultivate the bizarre mystique of “Trotskyite neocon” — and bashing “the Ghoul of Calcutta,” I mean Mother Theresa. Picking easy targets alone — like political correctness or Michael Moore — just doesn’t make him non-conformist enough.
I’ve given up trying to make sense of the contradictions of militant atheism, worship of Trotsky, hatred of the left and support of Bush. He’s not supposed to make sense; on the other hand, the other anti-evangelical authors — who are presumably sincere about their views — should know better than to attack every example of religiosity, and not just the ones that are making this country worse.
~Cliff :o)