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| Moon, over my house |
I know the "New Atheists" are mostly the Forgotten Atheists (when polled, barely 1% of my philosophy students have heard of them). Nonetheless, I am a philosopher of religion. I read and read and read in this area.
And re-read.
I'm taking a break from writing and re-reading Alvin Plantinga's Knowledge and Christian Belief. One new atheist claim is that the cause of all human evil is religion. But surely that is false. Plantinga writes,
The New Atheists "blame everything short of bad weather and tooth decay on religion. They conveniently ignore the fact that modern atheist ideologies — Nazism and Marxism, for example — were responsible, in the twentieth century alone, for far more suffering and death than religion in its entire history. Their style emphasizes venom, vitriol, vituperation, ridicule, insult, and “naked contempt”; what’s missing, however, is cogent argument." (Alvin Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief, Kindle Location 51)
Vituperation.
Ridicule.
Insult.
Naked contempt.
None of my atheist philosophy professors displayed these sophomoric qualities.
But where they have found a home, they exist as a replacement for critical thinking. Mocking atheists are fundamentalists - no "fun," to much "damn," not enough "mental."
(See also here.)
