Abstract
The ‘new atheism’ has become an established cultural reference point in Britain. The anti-religious texts of authors such as Richard Dawkins have fuelled much media discussion concerning the public role of religion in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The new atheism has also been politically controversial, with a government minister recently criticising ‘secular fundamentalism’ for threatening religious identity and seeking to remove religion from public life. Many commentators have argued that new atheism effectively mirrors the features of religious fundamentalism, evincing an intolerant and absolutist worldview that may damage social and political relations. This article seeks to examine the extent to which new atheism possesses features that echo those of the religious fundamentalist. It is contended that while the new atheists display strong anti-religious convictions, they generally do not adopt stances of absolute certainty. New atheists promote uncompromising arguments for depriving religion of institutional and political privileges, yet maintain liberal tolerance for the practice of religion itself. It is suggested that while new atheists ought not to be considered secular fundamentalists, they do proselytise for radical secularism and atheism in a way which could be considered ‘evangelical’ in certain respects.
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Notes
Although he is strongly anti-religious and sometimes described as a new atheist, Amis has also expressed some reservations about ‘atheism’ as a perspective (Amis, 2002).
The term was first publicly used in the US magazine Wired to encapsulate the ideas of the best-selling polemics of Dawkins, Harris and Dennett (Wolf, 2006). The term was then picked up by numerous other commentators and applied to other later anti-religious, pro-atheist publications. Leading atheists have tended to accept and use the label themselves, despite occasional misgivings.
The article emphasises the implications of new atheism within a British context. However, it should be recognised that new atheism is significant not just in Anglo-America but parts of Europe and elsewhere.
There have been disagreements within the NSS about how far they should simply concern themselves with defending their version of secularism, against the extent to which they should openly attack religious faith and belief in God. However, the current leadership of the organisation has consciously sought to avoid being labelled as an atheist lobby group (though some critics argue this is what they effectively are (West, 2009)) and have put some distance between themselves and the new atheism (Sanderson, 2009).
The organisation has lent its support to promoting atheism in particular ways, for example, supporting a fundraising campaign to send copies of Alon Shaha’s Young Atheist Handbook to every school in England.
Although small groups do exist, for example, ‘Atheism UK’, established in 2009.
Indeed, scholars of religious movements have sometimes been at pains to highlight that labelling a religion ‘fundamentalist’ need not entail any negative judgment on that belief system, just as categorising a religion as ‘non-fundamentalist’ need not imply a more positive view of the religion. Similarly some critics of ‘atheist fundamentalism’ have sought to make clear that the term is not used pejoratively (Markam, 2010, p. 7).
In addition to the five ideological characteristics of fundamentalism listed here, Almond, Appleby and Sivan list four organisational characteristics. However, those who argue new atheism is a form of fundamentalism do so with regard to its professed beliefs. There are no specifically new atheist organisations. There are certainly networks of atheists with varying degrees of identification with new atheism, and the ‘hierarchies’ and relations within these are worthy of study.
Dawkins and Grayling are both vice-presidents of the British Humanist Association and Polly Toynbee is a former President. The former are also both honorary associates of the National Secular Society, as was the late Christopher Hitchens.
This comparison has not impressed all commentators. Elsdon-Baker writes: ‘making a Freudian association between strident atheism and women’s rights is no more valid than the activities of cigarette companies in the 1920s who hired models to smoke on suffragette marches in order to plant in people’s minds the idea that smoking was a badge of independent womanhood’ (2009, p. 151). Feminist theologian, Tina Beattie, has suggested that the approach of new atheists embodies a traditionally masculine ‘testosterone-driven’ desire to confront and point-score (2007).
New atheists are sometimes criticised for adopting a narrowly positivist view of scientific progress which embraces notions of falsification (Elsdon-Baker, 2009). Even so, the principle of falsification leaves any apparent empirical regularity, or discovered ‘law’ open to possible later refutation based on empirical evidence.
At points key figures such as Dawkins have expressed doubts about the wisdom of the strength of their criticisms against institutions often viewed as largely benign or relatively harmless, such as the Church of England (Dawkins, 2012c).
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McAnulla, S. Secular fundamentalists? Characterising the new atheist approach to secularism, religion and politics. Br Polit 9, 124–145 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2013.27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2013.27