Atheist fundamentalists
by KrauzeGary Wolf has a piece in Wired Magazine, "The Church of the Non-Believers", in which he skewers what he calls the "New Atheistm": Richard Dawkins with his desire to label a religious upbringing as "child abuse", Sam Harris with his apocalyptic visions of religion bringing civilization to a halt, as well as the disastrous attempt to label themselves "Brights". As an agnostic, Gary Wolf is in agreement with Dawkins et al.'s general beliefs, but is put off by the fact that in their fanaticism, the "New Atheists" resemble the fundamentalists they so despise:
The New Atheists have castigated fundamentalism and branded even the mildest religious liberals as enablers of a vengeful mob. Everybody who does not join them is an ally of the Taliban. But, so far, their provocation has failed to take hold. Given all the religious trauma in the world, I take this as good news. Even those of us who sympathize intellectually have good reasons to wish that the New Atheists continue to seem absurd. If we reject their polemics, if we continue to have respectful conversations even about things we find ridiculous, this doesn't necessarily mean we've lost our convictions or our sanity. It simply reflects our deepest, democratic values. Or, you might say, our bedrock faith: the faith that no matter how confident we are in our beliefs, there's always a chance we could turn out to be wrong.
Indeed. You can find extremists on both sides, whether the issue is intelligent design or the existence of God. Extremists see everything in terms of black or white, and even the slightest disagreement with them will get you branded as "one of them" (as when Dawkins et al. refuse to work with critics of the Pope's stance on birth control, just because those critics happen to be Catholics). Fortunately, such extremists will rarely get anything done, as they will isolate themselves in closed enclaves and consume each other in internal witchhunts.
October 27th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
That's a nice excerpt from Wolf. In fact, the whole article is very well written and thoughtful (the part about Dennett is an eye-opener).
Comment by MikeGene — October 27, 2006 @ 11:02 pm
November 2nd, 2006 at 6:53 am
It's a very interesting article. I find myself in a very similar position to Wolf, as a 'moderate' atheist who is repelled by the evangelical style of the likes of Dawkins and Harris. It's unfortunately the extremists at both ends of the debate who shout the loudest.
I agree with you as well Mike, the bit about Dennett is very interesting.
Comment by Odd Digit — November 2, 2006 @ 6:53 am