Posted: Apr 19, 2012 1:38 am
Paul wrote:xrayzed wrote: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.
rJD wrote:I’m not convinced this is anything to do with ‘social trends’ – “New Atheism” was always a media trend, and these do pass, as the needs of media organisations for something “new” change. The conversation has certainly moved on, with more of a discussion between atheists about tactics but this is something we can be happy about, since it is normalising atheism as the default stance (in my opinion and experience).
Good points. I can't actually think of anybody who has self-identified as a "new atheist", or considered what they are doing is "new atheism".