"The Nation" article on the 'New Atheists'
[Cross-posted from chalice_circle]
Apparently I missed it when it first came out in late June, but this article by Ronald Aronson in The Nation caught my eye this evening:
I find the poll data Aronson quotes especially interesting:
Apparently I missed it when it first came out in late June, but this article by Ronald Aronson in The Nation caught my eye this evening:
The great success of the New Atheists is to have reached [non-believing Americans], both speaking to and for them. These writers are devoted, with sledgehammer force and angry urgency, to "breaking the spell" cast by the religious ascendancy, to overcoming a situation in which every other area of life can be critically analyzed while admittedly irrational religious faith is made central to American life but exempted from serious discussion.I'm with PZ Myers: I think Aronson stretches a little bit to find something in the works of Sam Harris, Daniel Dennettt, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens to criticize, but in the main it's a very good piece.
I find the poll data Aronson quotes especially interesting:
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