Posted: Apr 18, 2012 12:13 pm
xrayzed wrote:Invictus_88 wrote:Er, folks. The numbers don't matter here. Strictly speaking, the numbers and demographics stuff being discussed here is "off-topic".
His quote, when you take time to read it, refers to the nature of the atheist/anti-theist 'debate', not anything to do with the growth of any group or even the relative size of any group. He is clearly referring to the tone of the discussion, which - in point of fact - does seem to be softening (after a fashion).
I would think that the number of people who hold a perspective that could be described as "new atheism" is entirely on-topic.
If the Archbishop's point is that nobody has published any books in the last year or two with the impact of Letter to a Christian Nation, The God Delusion, or God is Not Great, and that consequently there's less coverage in the media, I wouldn't disagree.
But so what? That doesn't mean "the high tide of 'new atheism' has passed". It simply means "the high tide of books being published on 'new atheism' has passed.
I would say ".. of books being published labelled 'new atheism' ..", since 'new atheism' is really only a label invented by lazy journalists, a few years back, to identify the phenomenon of a spate of books being published, and an apparent upsurge in people being vocal about religion.
'New atheism' was never a new idea or a movement, as so often depicted by some theists, but a convenient 'bogey man' that, like their god, was never really there.