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The three living New Atheist figureheads deny that New Atheism is dead

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Last month, Darwinian P.Z. Myers proclaimed the new atheism over and dead. We’d heard it was in decline from a Google Trends graph but that’s like playing with a ouija board. Who knows?

Now, Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne emerged to say that it ain’t so. He quotes Sam Harris, one of the Four Horsemen of the (New Atheist) Apocalypse, along with Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet and the late Christopher Hitchens:

Sam’s been busy, as I thought, but he did take the time to answer the question that I asked this morning: “Is New Atheism dead?” His answer is below, and so we have three of the four living Horsepersons all answering “no”—along with Steve Pinker…

“The new atheism has not disappeared. It has merely diffused into a wider conversation about facts and values. In the end, the new atheism was nothing more than the acknowledgement that there is single magisterium: the ever-expanding space illuminated by intellectual honesty.” Jerry Coyne, “Sam Harris weighs in on “Is New Atheism dead?’” at Why Evolution Is True

Not sure what the difference is between disappearing and diffusing “into the wider conversation.” Time will tell. But it sounds dead.

See also: Which side will atheists choose in the war on science? They need to re-evaluate their alliance with progressivism, which is doing science no favours.

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Comments
seversky:
Atheism, new or old, is not going to go away
True. There will always be a-mat cranks in our midst.ET
February 18, 2019
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But US presidents will still be able to pander to their religious base by suggesting that atheists are not fit to be US citizens, for example Oh come on. The current president and the previous, if not atheist, are likely strong agnostic. And as a former atheist myself, times 2, the above assertion seems really contrived. Such a thought never occurred to yours truly ever.groovamos
February 17, 2019
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The impression I got from the “new atheists” as opposed to your run-of-the-mill atheists was an angry vibe. Most atheists go through life minding their own business, not forcing their views on others. The closest equivalence I see with the new atheists are born-again Christians. I’m sure that muslims have an equivalent, but I am not familiar enough with them.Ed George
February 17, 2019
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Atheism, new or old, is not going to go away but neither do I believe it will it supplant religions for the foreseeable future for reasons I have given before. What the New Atheist movement did, if anything, was to establish it as a more respectable topic in mainstream public discourse. But US presidents will still be able to pander to their religious base by suggesting that atheists are not fit to be US citizens, for example.Seversky
February 17, 2019
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"a single magisterium"? That sounds like New Atheism is evolving into a religion! Who'd a thot it?Fasteddious
February 17, 2019
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