New Atheism#Criticisms

{{Independent sources|section|date=April 2025}}

{{multiple image

| perrow = 2

| total_width = 300

| image1 = Sam Harris 2016 (cropped).jpg

| image2 = Richard Dawkins Cooper Union Shankbone.jpg

| image3 = Daniel Dennett in Venice 2006.png

| image4 = Christopher Hitchens crop 2.jpg

| footer = The "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism (clockwise from top left): Sam Harris (b. 1967), Richard Dawkins (b. 1941), Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011), and Daniel Dennett (1942–2024)

| caption_align = left

}}

Key figures associated with New Atheism include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, and journalist Christopher Hitchens.{{cite web |last=Taylor |first=James E. |title=The New Atheists |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/n-atheis/ |access-date=18 January 2025 |website=The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |quote=The New Atheists are authors of early twenty-first century books promoting atheism. These authors include Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens. The 'New Atheist' label for these critics of religion and religious belief emerged out of journalistic commentary on the contents and impacts of their books. |archive-date=26 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826001224/http://www.iep.utm.edu/n-atheis/ |url-status=live}}{{cite journal |last1=Finley |first1=Wayne |title=The Four Horsemen of New Atheism: A Select Bibliography |journal=Journal of Religious & Theological Information |date=2019 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=115–125 |doi=10.1080/10477845.2019.1660464 |issn=1528-6924}}{{cite book |chapter=Part III - The New Atheism |date=2017 |title=Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism |page=95 |last=Khalil |first=Mohammad Hassan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781108377263.009 |isbn=978-1-108-38512-1}} The four are often collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen",{{r|Finley 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Restivo |first1=Sal P. |title=Beyond New Atheism and Theism: A Sociology of Science, Secularism, and Religiosity |date=2023 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1-032-50093-5 |pages=xi–xii |doi=10.4324/9781003396857 |edition=1st |chapter=Prologue: New Atheists and Theists on Stage |quote=Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969–), sometimes referred to as the fifth 'Horseman,' is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, feminist, and former politician}}{{cite book |last1=Borer |first1=Michael Ian |editor1-last=Amarasingam |editor1-first=Amarnath |title=Religion and the New Atheism |date=2010 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden, Netherlands |isbn=978-90-04-19053-5 |page=125 |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.47 |chapter=The New Atheism And The Secularization Thesis |quote=The typically belligerent, impassioned, and overly hostile tropes of the New Atheism's Four Horsemen{{emdash}}Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens{{emdash}}show that religion has retained an extraordinary amount of power in the modern world.}} an allusion to the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation.{{cite book |last1=Klug |first1=Petra |title=Anti-Atheist Nation: Religion and Secularism in the United States |date=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=London |isbn=978-1-000-80442-3 |page=106 |doi=10.4324/9781003307594 |chapter= |quote=In reference to the Book of Revelation, the most popular representatives of this 'New Atheism'{{emdash}}Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens{{emdash}}are often called the 'four horsemen.' According to Dawkins, however, they had also invited a 'horsewoman' to the table: The Somali-born writer, filmmaker, and well-known critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali [...]}}{{Cite book |last=Zenk |first=Thomas |title=The Oxford Handbook of Atheism |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-964465-0 |editor-last=Bullivant |editor-first=Stephen |page=254 |language=en |chapter=New Atheism |editor-last2=Ruse |editor-first2=Michael |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199644650.013.034}} Before her 2023 conversion to Christianity, writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali was sometimes referred to as the fifth "Horseman"{{r|Restivo 2024}}{{Cite web |last=Blumner |first=Robyn |date=4 December 2020 |title=Give the Four Horsemen (and Ayaan) Their Due. They Changed America. |url=https://secularhumanism.org/2020/12/give-the-four-horsemen-and-ayaan-their-due-they-changed-america/ |access-date=24 December 2022 |website=Free Inquiry |language=en-US |archive-date=28 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228145337/https://secularhumanism.org/2020/12/give-the-four-horsemen-and-ayaan-their-due-they-changed-america/ |url-status=live}} or "Horsewoman" of New Atheism.{{cite book |last1=Finger |first1=Anja |editor1-last=Cotter |editor1-first=C. |editor2-last=Quadrio |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Tuckett |editor3-first=J. |title=New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates |date=2017 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |location=Cham |isbn=978-3-319-54964-4 |page=159 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-54964-4_9 |chapter=Four Horsemen (and a Horsewoman): What Gender Is New Atheism? |quote=The year following [Hitchens'] death the original conversation was revisited at the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne [...]. Present were the three remaining 'horsemen'{{emdash}}and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-Dutch now American author, one-time politician and researcher, whose autobiographical debut, published in English as Infidel [...] tells her journey through different parts of the world and away from Islam.}}

Harris's 2004 book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, a bestseller in the United States, was joined over the next couple years by a series of popular best-sellers by atheist authors.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/09/hitchens200709 |title=God Bless Me, It's a Best-Seller! |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Hitchens |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=15 August 2007 |access-date=14 April 2016 |quote=...in the last two years there have been five atheist best-sellers, one each from Professors Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett and two from the neuroscientist Sam Harris. |archive-date=2 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002001157/http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/09/hitchens200709 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution |publisher=Random House |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-525-51195-3 |location=New York |page=1}} Harris was motivated by the events of 11 September 2001, for which he blamed Islam, while also directly criticizing Christianity and Judaism.{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Sam |author-link=Sam Harris |date=11 August 2004 |title=The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-7432-6809-7 |title-link=The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason}} Two years later, Harris followed up with Letter to a Christian Nation, which was a severe criticism of Christianity.{{cite news |last=Steinfels |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Steinfels |title=Books on Atheism Are Raising Hackles in Unlikely Places |work=The New York Times |date=3 March 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/books/03beliefs.html |access-date=17 July 2016 |archive-date=26 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170626135149/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/books/03beliefs.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited}} Later Harris wrote several bestselling non-fiction books including The Moral Landscape, and Waking Up, along with two shorter works (initially published as e-books) Free Will and Lying.{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Sam |author-link=Sam Harris (author) |year=2012 |title=Free Will |publisher=The Free Press |isbn=978-1-4516-8340-0 |page=96 |id={{ASIN|1451683405 |country=uk}} |url=https://archive.org/details/freewill00harr_0/page/96/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Sam |title=Lying |year=2013 |publisher=Four Elephants Press |isbn=978-1-940051-00-0 |page=108 |id={{ASIN|1940051002 |country=uk}}}}

Dawkins is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. In 2006, following his television documentary series The Root of All Evil?, he published The God Delusion, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 51 weeks.{{cite web |title=The God Delusion One-Year Countdown |url=http://richarddawkins.net/article,1599,The-God-Delusion-One-Year-Countdown,RichardDawkinsnet |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828171533/http://richarddawkins.net/article,1599,The-God-Delusion-One-Year-Countdown,RichardDawkinsnet |archive-date=28 August 2008 |work=RichardDawkins.net |access-date=5 October 2007}} Dawkins writes in the introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of the book: "I don't object to the horseman label, by the way. I'm less keen on 'new atheist': it isn't clear to me how we differ from old atheists."{{cite book |last1=Dawkins |first1=Richard |title=The God Delusion |date=2016 |publisher=Black Swan |location=London |isbn=978-1-78416-193-4 |page=I15 |edition=10th anniversary |language=en |chapter=New introduction to the 10th anniversary edition}}

On 30 September 2007, Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and Dennett met at Hitchens' residence in Washington, D.C., for a private two-hour unmoderated round table discussion. The event was videotaped and titled "The Four Horsemen".{{cite web |url=https://richarddawkins.net/2013/10/the-four-horsemen-dvd-19-95/ |title=The Four Horsemen DVD |website=Richard Dawkins Foundation |access-date=13 April 2016 |quote=On the 30th of September 2007, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens sat down for a first-of-its-kind, unmoderated 2-hour discussion, convened by RDFRS and filmed by Josh Timonen. |archive-date=11 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170611214236/https://richarddawkins.net/2013/10/the-four-horsemen-dvd-19-95/ |url-status=dead}} During "The God Debate" in 2010 with Hitchens versus Dinesh D'Souza, the group was collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse".{{cite web |url=http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/sam-harris-is-still-railing-against-religion/ |title=Sam Harris is Still Railing Against Religion |last=Hoffman |first=Claire |date=2 September 2014 |website=Los Angeles Magazine |access-date=13 April 2016 |quote=As Western society grappled with radical Islam, Harris distinguished himself with his argument that modern religious tolerance had placated us into allowing delusion rather than reason to prevail. Harris upended a discussion that had long been dominated by cultural relativism and a hands-off academic intellectualism; his seething contempt for the world's faiths helped launch the 'New Atheist' movement, and together with Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett, he became known as one of the 'Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse.' |archive-date=15 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615152332/http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/sam-harris-is-still-railing-against-religion/ |url-status=live}}

Hitchens, the author of God Is Not Great,{{cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Hitchens |title=God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything |year=2007 |publisher=Atlantic Books |edition=First trade |isbn=978-1-843-54574-3 |page=320}} was named among the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. He served on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. In 2010, Hitchens published his memoir Hitch-22 (a nickname provided by close personal friend Salman Rushdie, whom Hitchens always supported during and following The Satanic Verses controversy).{{cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Hitch22 |year=2010 |publisher=Atlantic Books |isbn=978-1-843-54922-2 |page=448 |id={{ASIN|1843549220 |country=uk}}}} Shortly after its publication, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which led to his death in December 2011.{{cite news |title=Christopher Hitchens dies at 62 after suffering cancer |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16212418 |work=BBC News |date=16 December 2011 |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-date=30 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330215716/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16212418 |url-status=live}} Before his death, Hitchens published a collection of essays and articles in his book Arguably;{{cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Arguably |year=2011 |publisher=Atlantic Books |isbn=978-0-85789-258-4 |id={{ASIN|0857892584 |country=uk}}}} a short edition, Mortality,{{cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Mortality |year=2012 |publisher=Atlantic Books |isbn=978-1-84887-921-8 |id={{ASIN|1848879210 |country=uk}}}} was published posthumously in 2012. These publications and numerous public appearances provided Hitchens with a platform to remain an astute atheist during his illness, even speaking specifically on the culture of deathbed conversions and condemning attempts to convert the terminally ill, which he opposed as "bad taste".{{cite web |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Is there an afterlife? |website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbzd6ZbCowY}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}{{cite web |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Hitchens and Paxman interview |website=YouTube |date=12 December 2010 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-s9AyNQyCw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/Y-s9AyNQyCw |archive-date=20 December 2021 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}

Dennett was the author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Breaking the Spell.{{cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Dennett |title=Darwin's Dangerous Idea |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-14-016734-4 |page=592 |publisher=Penguin Adult |id={{ASIN|014016734X |country=uk}}}}{{cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Dennett |title=Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon |year=2007 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-101777-8 |page=464}} He had been a vocal supporter of The Clergy Project,{{cite web |last=Dennett |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Dennett |title=Clergy Project |url=http://clergyproject.org/news/2012/04/15/dan-dennett-speaks-about-the-clergy-project-at-2012-global-atheist-convention/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122144720/http://www.clergyproject.org/news/2012/04/15/dan-dennett-speaks-about-the-clergy-project-at-2012-global-atheist-convention/ |archive-date=22 January 2013}} an organization that provides support for clergy in the US who no longer believe in God and cannot fully participate in their communities any longer.{{cite web |title=Clergy Project Home Page |url=http://clergyproject.org/ |date=4 October 2014 |access-date=3 November 2013 |archive-date=9 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609133526/http://clergyproject.org/ |url-status=live}} He was also a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board,{{cite web |title=Daniel Dennett |url=https://secular.org/profile/dr-daniel-dennett/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205150404/https://secular.org/profile/dr-daniel-dennett/ |archive-date=5 December 2020 |access-date=4 January 2021 |work=Secular.org}} and a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, as well as an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. He did research into clerics who are secretly atheists and how they rationalize their works. He found what he called a "don't ask, don't tell" conspiracy because believers did not want to hear of loss of faith. This made unbelieving preachers feel isolated, but they did not want to lose their jobs and church-supplied lodgings. Generally, they consoled themselves with the belief that they were doing good in their pastoral roles by providing comfort and required ritual.{{cite journal |last1=Dennett |first1=Daniel C. |last2=LaScola |first2=Linda |title=Preachers Who are Not Believers |journal=Evolutionary Psychology |date=2010 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=122–150 |doi=10.1177/147470491000800113 |doi-access=free |url=https://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/dennett/papers/Preachers_who_are_not_believers.pdf |archive-date=9 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209175046/http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/dennett/papers/Preachers_who_are_not_believers.pdf |issn=1474-7049 |via=Tufts University Center for Cognitive Studies}} The research, with Linda LaScola, was further extended to include other denominations and non-Christian clerics.[http://traffic.libsyn.com/ffrf/FTradio_247_011511.mp3 Podcast: interview with Daniel Dennett. Further developments of the research: pastors, priests, and an Imam who are closet atheists]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414080440/http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/8/6/b/86b9fb94735253f4/FTradio_247_011511.mp3?c_id=2966629&cs_id=2966629&expiration=1586854694&hwt=5f8f65a36e676aca287140cce601aef1|date=14 April 2020}}. The research and stories Dennett and LaScola accumulated during this project were published in their 2013 co-authored book, Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind.{{Cite news |url=https://thehumanist.com/magazine/may-june-2014/arts_entertainment/caught-in-the-pulpit-leaving-belief-behind |title=Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind |date=22 April 2014 |work=TheHumanist.com |access-date=1 June 2017 |language=en-US |archive-date=1 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401015205/https://thehumanist.com/magazine/may-june-2014/arts_entertainment/caught-in-the-pulpit-leaving-belief-behind |url-status=live}}

The book The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution was released in 2019.{{cite web |date=19 March 2019 |title=The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-525-51195-3 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=21 August 2019 |archive-date=21 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821214044/https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-525-51195-3 |url-status=live}}

Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American writer, politician, and well-known critic of Islam. She was a central figure of New Atheism until she announced her conversion to Christianity in November 2023.{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Sarah |date=29 November 2023 |title=The Infidel Turned Christian |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/11/ayaan-hirsi-alis-political-conversion.html |access-date=5 December 2023 |website=Intelligencer |language=en |archive-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118195953/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/11/ayaan-hirsi-alis-political-conversion.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |quote=After publicly disavowing Islam, [Hirsi Ali] became a face of New Atheism and was elected to the Dutch parliament in 2003.}} Originally scheduled to attend the 2007 meeting,{{Cite news |last=Ahuja |first=Anjana |date=22 March 2019 |title=The Four Horsemen — polemics from the high priests of New Atheism |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f3238d46-4418-11e9-b83b-0c525dad548f |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-date=28 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228115310/https://www.ft.com/content/f3238d46-4418-11e9-b83b-0c525dad548f |url-status=live}} she later appeared with Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention, where she was referred to as the "one horse-woman" by Dawkins.{{YouTube|id=sOMjEJ3JO5Q|title=Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris & Ayaan Hirsi Ali}} Robyn Blumner, CEO of the Center for Inquiry, has described Hirsi Ali as the fifth "horseman". Hirsi Ali has been vocal in opposing Islamic ideology, especially concerning women, as exemplified by her books Infidel and The Caged Virgin.{{cite book |last=Hirsi Ali |first=Ayaan |author-link=Ayaan Hirsi Ali |title=The Caged Virgin |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7432-8834-7 |id={{ASIN|0743288343 |country=uk}} |url=https://archive.org/details/cagedvirginemanc00hirs/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |publisher=Free Press |location=New York}}{{cite web |last=Hirsi Ali |first=Ayaan |title=Christians in the Muslim world |url=http://mag.newsweek.com/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html |date=6 February 2012 |work=Newsweek |access-date=3 November 2013 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304212737/http://mag.newsweek.com/2012/02/05/ayaan-hirsi-ali-the-global-war-on-christians-in-the-muslim-world.html |url-status=live}}

Others have either self-identified as or been classified by some commentators as new atheists:

• Dan Barker (b. 1949), author of Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists{{cite web |last=Wainwright |first=Jon |date=2010 |title=The Not So New Atheists? |url=https://philosophynow.org/issues/78/The_Not_So_New_Atheists |access-date=27 August 2022 |work=Philosophy Now |archive-date=30 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630005810/https://philosophynow.org/issues/78/The_Not_So_New_Atheists |url-status=live}}
• Peter Boghossian (b. 1966), philosopher and author of A Manual for Creating Atheists{{cite news |last=Schulson |first=Michael |title=Atheist Philosopher Peter Boghossian's Guide to Converting Believers |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/atheist-philosopher-peter-boghossians-guide-to-converting-believers |work=The Daily Beast |date=2 November 2013 |access-date=19 November 2020 |archive-date=16 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201216105714/https://www.thedailybeast.com/atheist-philosopher-peter-boghossians-guide-to-converting-believers |url-status=live}}
• Greta Christina (b. 1961), author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things that Piss Off the Godless{{cite web |url=https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/defending_new_atheism_from_misdirected_leftists/ |title=In Defense of New Atheism |work=Center for Inquiry |first=Ned |last=Borninski |date=30 June 2015 |access-date=26 August 2022 |archive-date=19 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519055401/https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/defending_new_atheism_from_misdirected_leftists/ |url-status=live}}
• Jerry Coyne (b. 1949), author of Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible{{Cite web |last=Berezow |first=Alex |date=21 October 2013 |title=Jerry Coyne's Twisted History of Science and Religion |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexberezow/2013/10/21/jerry-coynes-twisted-history-of-science-religion/ |access-date=25 November 2022 |website=Forbes |archive-date=25 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125220028/https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexberezow/2013/10/21/jerry-coynes-twisted-history-of-science-religion/ |url-status=live}}Pigliucci, Massimo (2013). [https://philpapers.org/archive/PIGNAA.pdf New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820050154/https://philpapers.org/archive/PIGNAA.pdf |date=20 August 2020 }} Midwest Studies In Philosophy, Vol. 37 (1): pp. 142-153.
• Rebecca Goldstein (b. 1950), philosopher and author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God{{Cite web |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2011/0210/Interview-with-Rebecca-Newberger-Goldstein-author-of-36-Arguments-for-the-Existence-of-God |title=Interview with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of "36 Arguments for the Existence of God |first=Marjorie |last=Kehe |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=10 February 2011 |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=7 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207144956/https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/Books/2011/0210/Interview-with-Rebecca-Newberger-Goldstein-author-of-36-Arguments-for-the-Existence-of-God |url-status=live}}
• Michel Onfray (b. 1959), author of Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam{{cite web |last=Dalrymple |first=Theodore |date=2007 |title=What the New Atheists Don't See |url=https://www.city-journal.org/html/what-new-atheists-don%e2%80%99t-see-13058.html?wallit_nosession=1 |access-date=27 August 2022 |work=City Journal |archive-date=10 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710183440/https://www.city-journal.org/html/what-new-atheists-don%E2%80%99t-see-13058.html?wallit_nosession=1 |url-status=dead}}
• Michael Schmidt-Salomon (b. 1967) author of Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism and identified as Germany's "Chief Atheist""...sagte Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Vorstand der Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung und damit so etwas wie Deutschlands Chef-Atheist." ("...said Michael Schmidt-Salomon, [who is] chairman of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, and therefore something of a 'chief atheist' for Germany.") [http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,485459,00.html Chef-Atheist im Chat: "Gynäkologen, die an die Jungfrauengeburt glauben"], Spiegel Online, 29 May 2007 (Accessed 6 April 2008)
• TJ Kirk (b. 1985), YouTube personality and podcast host known for his YouTube Channel Amazing Atheist{{cite web |title=Joe Rogan and T.J. Kirk on Milo Yiannopoulos |work=The Joe Rogan Experience |via=YouTube |first=Joe |last=Rogan |date=15 March 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcLh4Hwb0FU |accessdate=17 March 2017}}
• Rebecca Watson (b. 1980), author of the blog Skepchick{{cite book |last1=Johnstone-Louis |first1=Mary |editor1-last=Rinallo |editor1-first=Diego |editor2-last=Scott |editor2-first=Linda M. |editor3-last=Maclaran |editor3-first=Pauline |title=Consumption and Spirituality |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-88911-7 |page=57 |doi=10.4324/9780203106235 |chapter=No Gods. No Masters?: The 'New Atheist' Movement and the Commercialization of Unbelief}}
• Victor J. Stenger (1935–2014), author of God: The Failed Hypothesis{{r|Taylor 2016}}{{Cite book |last=Stenger |first=Victor J. |title=The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason |date=4 December 2009 |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=978-1-61592-344-1 |language=en}}

Some writers sometimes classified as new atheists by others have explicitly distanced themselves from the label:

• A. C. Grayling (b. 1949), philosopher and author of The God Argument{{cite web |last1=Catto |first1=Rebecca |last2=Eccles |first2=Jane |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/14/atheism-socialnetworking |title=Beyond Grayling, Dawkins and Hitchens, a new kind of British atheism |work=The Guardian |date=14 April 2011 |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=31 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111231034107/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/14/atheism-socialnetworking |url-status=live}}
• John W. Loftus (b. 1954), author of The Outsider Test For Faith{{Cite web |url=https://twitter.com/loftusjohnw/status/1497969878795309056 |title=@loftusjohnw on Twitter: Why Did Randal Rauser Recommend "God and Horrendous Suffering"? Despite his high recommendation of my book Rauser is on a mission to discredit it, pejoratively calling me a "New Atheist" and a "Fundamentalist". Inquiring Minds Want to Know Why! |access-date=8 April 2022 |archive-date=8 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408072534/https://twitter.com/loftusjohnw/status/1497969878795309056 |url-status=live}}
• P. Z. Myers (b. 1957), writer and biologist. Author of the blog Pharyngula

File:ScarletLetter.svg]]

Many contemporary atheists write from a scientific perspective. Unlike previous writers, many of whom thought that science was indifferent or even incapable of dealing with the "God" concept, Dawkins argues to the contrary, claiming the "God Hypothesis" is a valid scientific hypothesis,{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=The God Delusion |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |date=2008}} having effects in the physical universe, and like any other hypothesis can be tested and falsified. Victor Stenger proposed that the personal Abrahamic God is a scientific hypothesis that can be tested by standard methods of science. Both Dawkins and Stenger conclude that the hypothesis fails any such tests,Stenger, 2008 and argue that naturalism is sufficient to explain everything we observe. They argue that nowhere is it necessary to introduce God or the supernatural to understand reality.

Non-believers (in religion and the supernatural) assert that many religious or supernatural claims (such as the virgin birth of Jesus and the afterlife) are scientific claims in nature. For instance, they argue, as do deists and Progressive Christians, that the issue of Jesus' supposed parentage is a question of scientific inquiry, rather than "values" or "morals".{{cite magazine |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |url=https://secularhumanism.org/1998/04/when-religion-steps-on-sciences-turf/ |title=When Religion Steps on Science's Turf: The Alleged Separation Between the Two Is Not So Tidy |magazine=Free Inquiry |volume=18 |issue=2 Spring |date=1998 |access-date=1 April 2023 |archive-date=16 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316083637/http://secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=dawkins_18_2 |url-status=live}} Rational thinkers believe science is capable of investigating at least some, if not all, supernatural claims.{{cite journal |last1=Fishman |first1=Yonatan I. |title=Can Science Test Supernatural Worldviews? |journal=Science & Education |date=June 2009 |volume=18 |issue=6–7 |pages=813–837 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11191-007-9108-4 |doi=10.1007/s11191-007-9108-4 |bibcode=2009Sc&Ed..18..813F |s2cid=20246250 |archive-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605094850/http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/Yon/test_supernatural2007.pdf|url-access=subscription }} Institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and Duke University have conducted empirical studies to try to identify whether there is evidence for the healing power of intercessory prayer.{{cite web |url=https://mm-gold.azureedge.net/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.html |date=12 February 2006 |title=Darwin Day Celebration: An International Celebration of Science and Humanity − "Supernatural Science" |first=Victor J. |last=Stenger |author-link=Victor J. Stenger |website=Mukto-Mona |access-date=11 March 2010 |archive-date=14 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314220817/https://mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/supernatural_science300106.htm}} According to Stenger, the experiments found no evidence that intercessory prayer worked.{{cite book |last=Stenger |first=Victor J. |title=The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason |date=2009 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New York |isbn=978-1-59102-751-5 |page=70}}

In his book God: The Failed Hypothesis, Victor Stenger argues that a God having omniscient, omnibenevolent, and omnipotent attributes, which he termed a 3O God, cannot logically exist.{{cite book |last=Stenger |first=Victor J. |title=God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59102-652-5 |edition=with new foreword by Christopher Hitchens |location=Amherst (New York) |chapter=}} A similar series of alleged logical disproofs of the existence of a God with various attributes can be found in Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier's The Impossibility of God,{{cite book |author-link1=Michael Martin (philosopher) |first1=Michael |last1=Martin |first2=Ricki |last2=Monnier |title=The Impossibility of God |publisher=Prometheus Books |date=2003}} or Theodore Drange's article, "Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey".{{cite journal |first=Theodore M. |last=Drange |title=Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/incompatible.html |journal=Philo |date=1998 |issue=2 |pages=49–60 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |via=The Secular Web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206205407/https://infidels.org/library/modern/theodore-drange-incompatible/}}

Richard Dawkins has been particularly critical of the conciliatory view that science and religion are not in conflict, noting, for example, that the Abrahamic religions constantly dabble in scientific matters. In a 1998 article published in Free Inquiry magazine, and later in his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins expresses disagreement with the view advocated by Stephen Jay Gould that science and religion are two non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA), each existing in a "domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution".

In Gould's proposal, science and religion should be confined to distinct non-overlapping domains: science would be limited to the empirical realm, including theories developed to describe observations, while religion would deal with questions of ultimate meaning and moral value. Dawkins contends that NOMA does not describe empirical facts about the intersection of science and religion. He argued: "It is completely unrealistic to claim, as Gould and many others do, that religion keeps itself away from science's turf, restricting itself to morals and values. A universe with a supernatural presence would be a fundamentally and qualitatively different kind of universe from one without. The difference is, inescapably, a scientific difference. Religions make existence claims, and this means scientific claims."

{{main|Science of morality}}

Harris considers that the well-being of conscious creatures forms the basis of morality. In The Moral Landscape, he argues that science can in principle answer moral questions and help maximize well-being.{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Sam |title=The Moral Landscape |year=2012 |publisher=Black Swan |isbn=978-0-552-77638-7 |id={{ASIN|0552776386 |country=uk}}}} Harris also criticizes cultural and moral relativism, arguing that it prevents people from making objective moral judgments about practices that clearly harm human well-being, such as female genital mutilation. Harris contends that we can make scientifically-based claims about the negative impacts of such practices on human welfare, and that withholding judgment in these cases is tantamount to claiming complete ignorance about what contributes to human well-being.{{cite web |last=Harris |first=Sam |title=How Science can Determine Moral Values |url=http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right.html |access-date=2 November 2013 |archive-date=27 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227021657/http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right.html |url-status=live}}

In the context of international politics, the principles of New Atheism establish no particular stance in and of themselves.{{cite journal |last1=Kettell |first1=Steven |title=Faithless: The politics of new atheism |journal=Secularism and Nonreligion |date=21 November 2013 |volume=2 |page=61 |doi=10.5334/snr.al |doi-access=free}} P. Z. Myers stated that New Atheism's key proponents are "a madly disorganized mob, united only by [their] dislike of the god-thing".{{cite web |author-link=PZ Myers |last1=Meyers [sic] |first1=Paul Z. [Pharyngula] |title=Atheism ≠ fascism |website=ScienceBlogs |language=en |date=11 June 2011 |url=https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/06/12/atheism-fascism |access-date=1 April 2023 |archive-date=1 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401130701/https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/06/12/atheism-fascism |url-status=live}} That said, the demographic that supports New Atheism is a markedly homogeneous one; in America and the Anglo-sphere more generally, this cohort is "more likely to be younger, male and single, to have higher than average levels of income and education, to be less authoritarian, less dogmatic, less prejudiced, less conformist and more tolerant and open-minded on religious issues." Because of this homogeneity among the group, there exists not a formal dynamic but a loose consensus on broad political "efforts, objectives, and strategies".{{Cite web |last=Kettell |first=Steven |date=18 June 2014 |title=New Atheism: The Politics of Unbelief |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2014/06/18/new-atheism-the-politics-of-unbelief/ |access-date=21 June 2020 |website=E-International Relations |archive-date=23 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200623122404/https://www.e-ir.info/2014/06/18/new-atheism-the-politics-of-unbelief/ |url-status=live}}

For example, one of the primary aims is to further reduce the entanglement of church and state, which derives from the "belief that religion is antithetical to liberal values, such as freedom of expression and the separation of public from private life". Additionally, new atheists have engaged in the campaign "to ensure legal and civic equality for atheists", in a world considerably unwelcoming to and distrustful of non-religious believers.{{cite journal |last1=Schulzke |first1=Marcus |title=The Politics of New Atheism |journal=Politics and Religion |date=December 2013 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=778–799 |id={{ProQuest|2210982282}} |doi=10.1017/S1755048313000217 |s2cid=197670821}}{{cite journal |last1=Kettell |first1=Steven |title=What's really new about New Atheism? |journal=Palgrave Communications |date=December 2016 |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=16099 |doi=10.1057/palcomms.2016.99 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |last1=Edgell |first1=Penny |last2=Gerteis |first2=Joseph |last3=Hartmann |first3=Douglas |title=Atheists As 'Other': Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society |journal=American Sociological Review |date=April 2006 |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=211–234 |doi=10.1177/000312240607100203 |s2cid=143818177}} Hitchens may be the atheist concerned most with religion's incompatibility with contemporary liberal principles, and particularly its imposed limitation on both freedom of speech and freedom of expression.{{Cite web |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |date=December 2011 |title=Why Even Hate Speech Needs to Be Protected |url=https://www.rd.com/culture/freedom-speech-most-important-first-amendment-right/ |website=Reader's Digest |access-date=21 June 2020 |archive-date=23 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200623003725/https://www.rd.com/culture/freedom-speech-most-important-first-amendment-right/ |url-status=live}} Because New Atheism's proliferation is accredited partly to the 11 September attacks and the ubiquitous, visceral response, Richard Dawkins, among many in his cohort, believes that theism (in this case, Islam) jeopardizes political institutions and national security, and he warns of religion's potency in motivating "people to do terrible things" against international polities.{{Cite web |title=Richard Dawkins On Terrorism And Religion |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/05/27/530337283/richard-dawkins-on-terrorism-and-religion |access-date=20 June 2020 |website=NPR.org |date=27 May 2017 |archive-date=22 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622093627/https://www.npr.org/2017/05/27/530337283/richard-dawkins-on-terrorism-and-religion |url-status=live}}

{{See also|Criticism of atheism#New Atheism}}

According to Nature, "Critics of new atheism, as well as many new atheists themselves, contend that in philosophical terms it differs little from earlier historical forms of atheist thought."{{cite journal |last1=Kettell |first1=Steven |title=What's really new about New Atheism? |journal=Palgrave Communications |date=December 2016 |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.1057/palcomms.2016.99 |doi-access=free}}

Critics of the movement described it as ”militant atheism”, ”fundamentalist atheism”, and “secular fundamentalists”.{{efn|The term is sometimes used benignly, for example by atheists such as Frans de Waal.}}{{cite news |last1=De Waal |first1=Frans |author-link1=Frans de Waal |title=Has militant atheism become a religion? |url=http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/militant_atheism_has_become_a_religion/ |work=Salon.com |access-date=9 March 2017 |date=25 March 2013 |quote=Why are the 'neo-atheists' of today so obsessed with God's nonexistence that they go on media rampages, wear T-shirts proclaiming their absence of belief, or call for a militant atheism? What does atheism have to offer that's worth fighting for? As one philosopher put it, being a militant atheist is like 'sleeping furiously.' |archive-date=9 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609130521/http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/militant_atheism_has_become_a_religion/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite journal |last1=Bullivant |first1=Stephen |last2=Lee |first2=Lois |title=Militant atheism |journal=Oxford Reference |volume=1 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191816819.001.0001 |date=2016}}{{cite web |last=Kurtz |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Kurtz |date=February 2007 |title=Religion in Conflict: Are 'Evangelical Atheists' Too Outspoken? |url=https://secularhumanism.org/2007/02/religion-in-conflict/ |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Free Inquiry |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120155214/https://secularhumanism.org/2007/02/religion-in-conflict/ |url-status=live}}{{cite web |last1=Hagerty |first1=Barbara Bradley |title=A Bitter Rift Divides Atheists |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113889251 |publisher=NPR |date=19 October 2009 |access-date=12 February 2017 |archive-date=1 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401042651/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113889251 |url-status=live}}{{cite journal |last=McAnulla |first=Stuart |title=Secular fundamentalists? Characterising the new atheist approach to secularism, religion and politics |journal=British Politics |volume=9 |pages=124–145 |year=2011 |issue=2 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1057/bp.2013.27 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/bp.2013.27}}{{cite book |last=LeDrew |first=Stephen |title=Relativism and Post-Truth in Contemporary Society |chapter=Scientism and Utopia: New Atheism as a Fundamentalist Reaction to Relativism |year=2018 |pages=143–155 |publisher=Springer |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-96559-8_9 |isbn=978-3-319-96558-1 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-96559-8_9}} Theologians Jeffrey Robbins and Christopher Rodkey take issue with what they regard as "the evangelical nature of the New Atheism, which assumes that it has a Good News to share, at all cost, for the ultimate future of humanity by the conversion of as many people as possible", and believe they have found similarities between New Atheism and evangelical Christianity and conclude that the all-consuming nature of both "encourages endless conflict without progress" between both extremities.{{cite book |author1=Jeffrey Robbins |author2=Christopher Rodkey |title=Religion and the New Atheism A Critical Appraisal |year=2010 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-203-2 |page=35 |editor=Amarnath Amarasingam |chapter=Beating 'God' to Death: Radical Theology and the New Atheism}} Amarnath Amarasingam, an extremism researcher, argues that the New Atheists fall prey to cognitive biases such as the fundamental attribution error and the out-group homogeneity bias, among others. These biases pose a substantive problem for New Atheism’s claims to rationality and objectivity.{{cite journal |last1=Amarasingam |first1=Amarnath |title=To Err in their Ways: The Attribution Biases of the New Atheists |journal=Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses |date=September 2010 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=573-588 |doi=10.1177/0008429810377404 | s2cid=145806228 |s2cid-access=free}} Political philosopher John Gray asserts that New Atheism, humanism, and scientism are extensions of religion, particularly Christianity.{{Cite book |last=Gray |first=John |year=2019 |title=Seven types of atheism |publisher=Picador |isbn=978-1-250-23478-0 |oclc=1137728757}} Anthropologist and psychiatrist Simon Dein considers New Atheism to be a mirror image of religious fundamentalism, based on an analysis of characteristics identified by the Fundamentalism Project: reactivity, dualism, absolutism and inerrancy, and apocalypticism. In addition, he also notes a shared emphasis on evidentialism.{{cite journal |last1=Dein |first1=Simon |title=The New Atheism and Religious Fundamentalism: Are They a Mirror Image of Each Other |journal=Science, Religion and Culture |date=December 2016 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=86-95 |doi=10.17582/journal.src/2016.3.2.86.95 |doi-access=free}} Sociologist William Stahl has said, "What is striking about the current debate is the frequency with which the New Atheists are portrayed as mirror images of religious fundamentalists."{{cite book |first=William |last=Stahl |title=Religion and the New Atheism A Critical Appraisal. |year=2010 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-203-2 |pages=97–108 |editor=Amarnath Amarasingam |chapter=One-Dimensional Rage: The Social Epistemology of the New Atheism and Fundamentalism}}

The atheist philosopher of science Michael Ruse states that Richard Dawkins would fail "introductory" courses on the study of "philosophy or religion" (such as courses on the philosophy of religion), courses which are offered, for example, at many educational institutions such as colleges and universities around the world.{{cite book |author1=Dougherty, T. |author2=Gage, {{nowrap|L. P.}} |editor1-last=Oppy |editor1-first=Graham |title=The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, UK |isbn=978-1-84465-831-2 |quote-pages=52–53 |chapter=New Atheist Approaches to Religion |pages=51–62 |quote=Michael Ruse (2009) said that Dawkins would fail 'any philosophy or religion course'; and for this reason Ruse says The God Delusion made him 'ashamed to be an atheist'}}{{cite web |last1=Ruse |first1=Michael |title=Why I Think the New Atheists are a Bloody Disaster |url=http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/scienceandthesacred/2009/08/why-i-think-the-new-atheists-are-a-bloody-disaster.html |website=Beliefnet |publisher=The BioLogos Foundation as a columnist of Beliefnet |access-date=19 August 2015 |date=August 2009 |quote=... I believe the new atheists do the side of science a grave disservice ... these people do a disservice to scholarship ... Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion would fail any introductory philosophy or religion course. Proudly he criticizes that whereof he knows nothing ... the poor quality of the argumentation in Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, and all of the others in that group ..." [...] "the new atheists are doing terrible political damage to the cause of Creationism fighting. Americans are religious people ... They want to be science-friendly, although it is certainly true that many have been seduced by the Creationists. We evolutionists have got to speak to these people. We have got to show them that Darwinism is their friend not their enemy. We have got to get them onside when it comes to science in the classroom. And criticizing good men like Francis Collins, accusing them of fanaticism, is just not going to do the job. Nor is criticizing everyone, like me, who wants to build a bridge to believers – not accepting the beliefs, but willing to respect someone who does have them." [...] "The God Delusion makes me ashamed to be an atheist. ... They are a bloody disaster and I want to be on the front line of those who say so. |archive-date=9 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109082532/http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/scienceandthesacred/2009/08/why-i-think-the-new-atheists-are-a-bloody-disaster.html |url-status=live}} Ruse also says that the movement of New Atheism—which is perceived by him to be "a bloody disaster"—makes him ashamed, as a professional philosopher of science, to be among those holding to an atheist position, particularly as New Atheism, as he sees it, does science a "grave disservice" and does a "disservice to scholarship" at a more general level. Paul Kurtz, editor in chief of Free Inquiry, founder of Prometheus Books, was critical of many of the new atheists. He said, "I consider them atheist fundamentalists... They're anti-religious, and they're mean-spirited, unfortunately. Now, there are very good atheists and very dedicated people who do not believe in God. But you have this aggressive and militant phase of atheism, and that does more damage than good." Jonathan Sacks, author of The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning, feels the new atheists miss the target by believing the "cure for bad religion is no religion, as opposed to good religion". He wrote:{{blockquote|Atheism deserves better than the new atheists whose methodology consists of criticizing religion without understanding it, quoting texts without contexts, taking exceptions as the rule, confusing folk belief with reflective theology, abusing, mocking, ridiculing, caricaturing, and demonizing religious faith and holding it responsible for the great crimes against humanity. Religion has done harm; I acknowledge that. But the cure for bad religion is good religion, not no religion, just as the cure for bad science is good science, not the abandonment of science.{{cite book |last1=Sacks |first1=Jonathan |title=The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning |date=2011 |publisher=Schocken |location=New York |isbn=978-0-805-24301-7 |page=11}}}}

The philosopher Massimo Pigliucci contends that the new atheist movement overlaps with scientism, which he finds to be philosophically unsound. He writes: "What I do object to is the tendency, found among many New Atheists, to expand the definition of science to pretty much encompassing anything that deals with 'facts', loosely conceived ... it seems clear to me that most of the New Atheists (except for the professional philosophers among them) pontificate about philosophy very likely without having read a single professional paper in that field ... I would actually go so far as to charge many of the leaders of the New Atheism movement (and, by implication, a good number of their followers) with anti-intellectualism, one mark of which is a lack of respect for the proper significance, value, and methods of another field of intellectual endeavor."{{cite book |last1=Pigliucci |first1=Massimo |title=New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement |date=2013 |publisher=Midwest Studies in Philosophy |pages=151–152}}

In The Evolution of Atheism, Stephen LeDrew wrote that New Atheism is fundamentalist and scientist; in contrast to atheism's tradition of social justice, it is right-wing and serves to defend "the position of the white middle-class western male".{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-19-022517-9 |title=The Evolution of Atheism (Review) |work=Publishers Weekly |date=19 October 2015 |accessdate=9 April 2022 |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409215533/https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-19-022517-9 |url-status=live}}{{cite journal |title=Review of The Evolution of Atheism |journal=Secularism and Nonreligion |last=Sullivan |first=Marek |year=2016 |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=5 |doi=10.5334/snr.73 |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal |url=https://secularhumanism.org/2016/03/cont-the-evolution-of-atheism-the-politics-of-a-modern-movement/ |title=The Evolution of Atheism (Review) |last=Flynn |first=Tom |journal=Free Inquiry |volume=36 |issue=3 |year=2016 |access-date=10 April 2022 |archive-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810221150/https://secularhumanism.org/2016/03/cont-the-evolution-of-atheism-the-politics-of-a-modern-movement/ |url-status=live}} Atheist professor Jacques Berlinerblau has criticised the new atheists' mocking of religion as being inimical to their goals and claims that they have not achieved anything politically.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/professor-jacques-berlinerblau-tells-atheists-stop-whining/2012/09/14/0fdaf7f4-feab-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html |title=Professor Jacques Berlinerblau tells atheists: Stop whining! |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Kimberly |last=Winston |date=17 September 2012 |access-date=31 October 2017 |archive-date=12 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112100142/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/professor-jacques-berlinerblau-tells-atheists-stop-whining/2012/09/14/0fdaf7f4-feab-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html |url-status=live}} Roger Scruton has extensively criticized New Atheism on various occasions, generally on the grounds that they do not consider the social effects and impacts of religion in enough detail. He has said, "Look at the facts in the round and it seems likely that humans without a sense of the sacred would have died out long ago. For that same reason, the hope of the new atheists for a world without religion is probably as vain as the hope for a society without aggression or a world without death."{{Cite web |last=Scruton |first=Roger |date=31 May 2014 |title=Humans hunger for the sacred. Why can't the new atheists understand that? |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/humans-hunger-for-the-sacred-why-can-t-the-new-atheists-understand-that/ |access-date=30 January 2022 |work=The Spectator |archive-date=8 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240508152718/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/humans-hunger-for-the-sacred-why-can-t-the-new-atheists-understand-that/ |url-status=live}} He has also complained of the new atheists' idea that they must "set people free from religion", calling it "naive" because they "never consider that they might be taking something away from people".{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzW4NEEJI48 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/MzW4NEEJI48 |archive-date=20 December 2021 |url-status=live |title=Roger Scruton on New Atheism and Religion |via=www.youtube.com}}{{cbignore}}

Edward Feser has critiqued the new atheists' responses to arguments for the existence of God:{{cite news |last1=Feser |first1=Edward |last2=Bowman |first2=Karlyn |title=The New Philistinism |url=https://www.aei.org/articles/the-new-philistinism/ |work=American Enterprise Institute - AEI |date=26 March 2010 |access-date=1 April 2023 |archive-date=1 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401132215/https://www.aei.org/articles/the-new-philistinism/ |url-status=live}}

{{Blockquote |text=It can safely be said that if you haven't both understood Aquinas and answered him – not to mention Anselm, Duns Scotus, Leibniz, Samuel Clarke, and so on, but let that pass – then you have hardly "made your case" against religion. Yet Dawkins is the only "New Atheist" to offer anything even remotely like an attempt to answer him, feeble as it is. |first=Edward |last=Feser |source=The Last Superstition (2008) }}

There have been criticisms of such movements perpetuating patriarchal tendencies, hierarchies and also exhibiting sexism, despite internal claims of gender equality, and this has contributed to female atheists feeling shut out, trivialized, and silenced.{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Ashley F. |title=The Non-Religious Patriarchy: Why Losing Religion Has Not Meant Losing White Male Dominance |journal=CrossCurrents |date=2013 |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=211–226 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24462265 |issn=0011-1953}}{{cite journal |last1=Guenther |first1=Katja M. |title=Secular sexism: The persistence of gender inequality in the US New Atheist Movement |journal=Women's Studies International Forum |date=January 2019 |volume=72 |pages=47–55 |doi=10.1016/j.wsif.2018.11.007}} The New Atheist movement has been accused of sexism after the Elevatorgate.{{cite news |last1=Winston |first1=Kimberly |title=Leading atheist, accused of sexual misconduct, speaks out |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/09/06/americas-leading-atheist-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-speaks-out/ |newspaper=Washington Post |date=6 September 2018 |access-date=13 July 2022 |archive-date=6 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906224359/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/09/06/americas-leading-atheist-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-speaks-out/ |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Bianco |first=Marcie |date=12 February 2016 |title=Brazen sexism is pushing women out of America's atheism movement |url=https://qz.com/613270/brazen-sexism-is-pushing-women-out-of-americas-atheism-movement/ |access-date=21 July 2022 |website=Quartz |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709020912/https://qz.com/613270/brazen-sexism-is-pushing-women-out-of-americas-atheism-movement/ |url-status=live}} In 2014, Sam Harris said that New Atheism was "to some degree intrinsically male".

Some commentators have accused the New Atheist movement of Islamophobia.{{cite web |first=Jerome |last=Taylor |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/atheists-richard-dawkins-christopher-hitchens-and-sam-harris-face-islamophobia-backlash-8570580.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/atheists-richard-dawkins-christopher-hitchens-and-sam-harris-face-islamophobia-backlash-8570580.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Atheists Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris face Islamophobia backlash |work=The Independent |date=13 April 2013 |access-date=30 January 2022}}FP Staff [http://www.firstpost.com/politics/unholy-war-atheists-and-the-politics-of-muslim-baiting-684377.html "Unholy war: Atheists and the politics of Muslim-baiting] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608144450/http://www.firstpost.com/politics/unholy-war-atheists-and-the-politics-of-muslim-baiting-684377.html |date=8 June 2017 }}". First Post. Retrieved April 16, 2013.{{cite journal |last1=Jacoby |first1=Wade |last2=Yavuz |first2=Hakan |title=Modernization, Identity and Integration: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Islam in Europe |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |volume=28 |issue=1 |page=1 |date=April 2008 |doi=10.1080/13602000802080486 |s2cid=144021468}}{{cite journal |last=Emilsen |first=William |title=The New Atheism and Islam |journal=The Expository Times |volume=123 |issue=11 |pages=521–528 |date=August 2012 |doi=10.1177/0014524612448737 |s2cid=171036043}} Wade Jacoby and Hakan Yavuz assert that "a group of 'new atheists' such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens" have "invoked Samuel Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' theory to explain the current political contestation" and that this forms part of a trend toward "Islamophobia{{nbsp}}... in the study of Muslim societies". William W. Emilson argues that "the 'new' in the new atheists' writings is not their aggressiveness, nor their extraordinary popularity, nor even their scientific approach to religion, rather it is their attack not only on militant Islamism but also on Islam itself under the cloak of its general critique of religion."

In 2019, Steven Poole of The Guardian claimed: "For some, New Atheism was never about God at all, but just a topical subgenre of the rightwing backlash against the supposedly suffocating atmosphere of 'political correctness'."{{Cite web |last=Poole |first=Steven |date=31 January 2019 |title=The Four Horsemen review - whatever happened to 'New Atheism'? |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/31/four-horsemen-review-what-happened-to-new-atheism-dawkins-hitchens |access-date=21 July 2022 |website=The Guardian |archive-date=28 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220728160815/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/31/four-horsemen-review-what-happened-to-new-atheism-dawkins-hitchens |url-status=live}} In an April 2021 interview, Natalie Wynn, a left-wing YouTuber who runs the channel ContraPoints, commented: "The alt-right, the manosphere, incels, even the so-called SJW Internet and LeftTube all have a genetic ancestor in New Atheism."{{Cite web |last=Maughan |first=Philip |date=14 April 2021 |title=The World According to ContraPoints |url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/contrapoints-natalie-wynn-interview/ |access-date=3 August 2021 |website=Highsnobiety |archive-date=29 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220429125954/https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/contrapoints-natalie-wynn-interview/ |url-status=live}} In a June 2021 retrospective article, Émile P. Torres of Salon argued that prominent figures in the New Atheist movement had aligned themselves with the far-right.{{cite web |date=5 June 2021 |title=Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right |url=https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/ |work=Salon |first=Émile P. |last=Torres |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=26 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826203416/https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/ |url-status=live}}

Tom Flynn (1955–2021), editor of Free Inquiry, wrote that the only "new" thing about New Atheism was the wider publication of atheist material by big-name publishers, books that appeared on bestseller lists and were read by millions.{{cite journal |last=Flynn |first=Tom |date=April–May 2010 |title=Why I Don't Believe in the New Atheism |url=https://secularhumanism.org/volume/no-3-vol-30/ |url-access=subscription |journal=Free Inquiry |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=7–43 |access-date=28 July 2011 |issn=0272-0701}} In November 2015, The New Republic published an article entitled "Is the New Atheism dead?"{{cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123349/new-atheism-dead |title=Is the New Atheism dead? |first=Elizabeth |last=Bruenig |magazine=The New Republic |date=6 November 2015 |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=12 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180712054228/https://newrepublic.com/article/123349/new-atheism-dead |url-status=live}} In 2016, the atheist and evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson (b. 1949) wrote: "The world appears to be tiring of the New Atheism movement."{{Cite web |last=Sloan Wilson |first=David |date=1 February 2016 |title=The New Atheism as a Stealth Religion: Five Years Later |url=https://thisviewoflife.com/the-new-atheism-as-a-stealth-religion-five-years-later/ |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=This View Of Life |language=en-US |archive-date=16 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816064310/https://evolution-institute.org/article/the-new-atheism-as-a-stealth-religion-five-years-later/ |url-status=live}} In 2017, PZ Myers, who formerly considered himself a new atheist, publicly renounced the New Atheism movement.{{Cite web |last=Myers |first=PZ |date=31 July 2017 |title=The New Atheism is dead. Long live atheism. |url=https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2017/07/31/the-new-atheism-is-dead-long-live-atheism/ |website=Pharyngula |access-date=12 July 2018 |archive-date=11 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911020202/https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2017/07/31/the-new-atheism-is-dead-long-live-atheism/ |url-status=live}}

In a June 2022 retrospective article, Sebastian Milbank of The Critic stated that, as a movement, "New Atheism has fractured and lost its original spirit", that "much of what New Atheism embodied has now migrated rightwards", and that "another portion has moved leftwards, embodied by the 'I Fucking Love Science' woke nerd of today."{{Cite magazine |last=Milbank |first=Sebastian |date=15 June 2022 |title=The strange afterlife of New Atheism |url=https://thecritic.co.uk/the-strange-afterlife-of-new-atheism/ |access-date=16 June 2022 |magazine=The Critic |archive-date=15 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615082848/https://thecritic.co.uk/the-strange-afterlife-of-new-atheism/ |url-status=live}} Following the conversion of writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Christianity in 2023, the columnist Sarah Jones wrote in New York magazine that the New Atheism movement was in "terminal decline".

{{Col-begin}}

{{Col-break}}

• A Brief History of Disbelief – 3-part PBS series (2007)
• Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies
• Antireligion
• Atheist feminism
• Brights movement
• Conflict thesis
• Critical thinking
• Criticism of religion

{{Col-break}}

• Freedom From Religion Foundation
• Freethought
• History of atheism
• Metaphysical naturalism
• Materialism
• Parody religion
• Public awareness of science
• Relationship between religion and science
• Secular movement

{{Col-end}}

Informational notes

{{Notelist}}

Citations

{{Reflist}}

• {{citation |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism? |title=Richard Dawkins, "Militant atheism" |work=TED talk |date=2002}}

{{New Atheism}}

{{Irreligion}}

{{Theism}}

{{Criticism of religion}}

{{Portal bar|Religion|Philosophy|Science|Society}}