Reason is the New Religion

There’s a very interesting cover story in next month’s Wired Magazine that’s bound to cause a big stir. It’s titled Battle of the New Atheism, and details the recent development of the active condemnation of any sort of sort of religion, The author, who is an atheist himself, puts the new atheist difference this way:

The New Atheists will not let us off the hook simply because we are not doctrinaire believers. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it’s evil. Now that the battle has been joined, there’s no excuse for shirking.

The most radical leader of this new movement is a scientist named Richard Dawkins, famed author of The Selfish Gene and most recently, The God Delusion. He was recently interviewed on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, where he laid out his arguments from the book, which are also discussed in the Wired article.

Ironically, by discrediting religious beliefs of any sort while insisting on a religion of pure reason and logic through atheism, the new atheists become more extreme than the ones they actively despise. They call us stupid because we believe in God, but they have no doubt about their faith in nothing.

Anyway, while I’m in complete disagreement with new atheism, I do recommend the article. Reading the author’s journey as he tests the limits of his own beliefs makes for interesting and thought provoking reading.