Religion and the New Atheism

Religion and the New Atheism Studies in Critical Social Sciences VOLUME 25 Series Editor David Fasenfest Wayne State University Studies in Critical Research on Religion VOLUME 1 Subseries Editor Warren S. Goldstein Center for Critical Research on Religion and Harvard University (U.S.A.) Editorial Board Roland Boer, University of Newcastle (Australia) Christopher Craig Brittain, University of Aberdeen (U.K.) Darlene Juschka, University of Regina (Canada) Lauren Langman, Loyola University Chicago (U.S.A.) George Lundskow, Grand Valley State University (U.S.A.) Kenneth G. MacKendrick, University of Manitoba (Canada) Andrew M. McKinnon, University of Aberdeen (U.K.) Robert A. Orsi, Northwestern University (U.S.A.) Michael R. Ott, Grand Valley State University (U.S.A.) Sara Pike, California State University, Chico (U.S.A) Dana Sawchuk, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada) Religion and the New Atheism A Critical Appraisal Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 On the cover: “Wanderings”, Death Valley, California (2008). Photograph by Amarnath Amarasingam. Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Religion and the new atheism : a critical appraisal / edited by Amarnath Amarasingam. p. cm. -- (Studies in critical social sciences ; v. 25) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-18557-9 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Atheism. 2. Religion-- Controversial literature--History and criticism. I. Amarasingam, Amarnath. II. Title. III. Series. BL2747.3.R47 2010 211'.8--dc22 2010015918 ISBN 978 9004 18557 9 ISSN 1573-4234 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints BRILL, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechani- cal, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands For Harshi, with love SERIES EDITOR PREFACE Th is is the fi rst book in the series “Studies in Critical Research on Religion” published by Brill (hardcover) and Haymarket Books (paper- back). We understand the term “critical” in the broadest possible sense and therefore think that this book is appropriate for the series. Some may associate a critical perspective with atheism and therefore be sur- prised how a book series bearing such a name would publish this. While certain strains of the critical approach (like the Left Hegelians and the Orthodox Marxists) are indeed atheistic, others like the Frankfurt School are more ambivalent. Since as Kant logically argued in his Critique of Pure Reason, the existence of God is empirically unverifi a- ble (one way or the other), atheism becomes just another belief system. Th e essays in this book represent a broad range of perspectives, some of which are closer to a critical perspective. While none of the essays fully embraces the New Atheism, some of them do see validity in some of its claims. We hope that the publication of this book will not only lead to a better understanding of the New Atheism but also help to establish the relationship of a critical perspective to it. Warren S. Goldstein, Ph.D. Center for Critical Research on Religion West Newton, Massachusetts USA www.criticaltheoryofreligion.org CONTENTS Acknowledgements ...................................................................................ix Foreword .....................................................................................................xi Richard Harries Preface .......................................................................................................xiii Reza Aslan 1. Introduction: What is the New Atheism? .......................................... 1 Amarnath Amarasingam I. Religion and the New Atheism 2. Judaism and Atheism: Th e Challenge of Secular Humanism ....... 11 Robert L. Platzner 3. Beating ‘God’ to Death: Radical Th eology and the New Atheism ......................................................................... 25 Jeffrey W. Robbins and Christopher D. Rodkey 4. Religion as Phantasmagoria: Islam in Th e End of Faith .................37 Rory Dickson II. Science and the New Atheism 5. What Has Atheism Ever Done for Science? .....................................57 Steve Fuller 6. Cognitive Science and the New Atheism .........................................79 William Sims Bainbridge III. Sociology and the New Atheism 7. One-Dimensional Rage: Th e Social Epistemology of the New Atheism and Fundamentalism .................................................97 William A. Stahl 8. Th e New Atheism and Sociology: Why Here? Why Now? What Next? ........................................................................................ 109 Stephen Bullivant viii contents 9. Th e New Atheism and the Secularization Th esis ........................125 Michael Ian Borer 10. Th e New Atheism and the Empowerment of American Freethinkers ..................................................................................... 139 Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith IV. Philosophy, Ethics and the New Atheism 11. Ethics, Out-Group Altruism, and the New Atheism ..................159 Gregory R. Peterson 12. Disparate Destinations, Parallel Paths: An Analysis of Contemporary Atheist and Christian Parenting Literature ...... 179 Jeff Nall 13. Is God a Hypothesis? Th e New Atheism, Contemporary Philosophy of Religion, and Philosophical Confusion .............. 203 Ryan C. Falcioni Aft erword ................................................................................................225 Mark Vernon About the Authors ..................................................................................233 References ................................................................................................ 237 Index ........................................................................................................ 251 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to all of those people who made this book possible. First, I would like to thank Warren S. Goldstein, Executive Director of the Center for Critical Research on Religion, and the Studies in Critical Research on Religion Series editor, for his ceaseless support and enthu- siasm for the project. I would also like to thank the editors at Brill for their kindness and endurance in patiently answering the dozens of emails and questions I threw their way from the very beginning. I would also like to thank all of the contributors to this book for releas- ing their hard wrought chapters into the hands of someone who is just beginning their academic career. You made an enjoyable experience from what could have been a stressful foray into publishing. I am also grateful to Ron Rooth for meticulously copy editing the manuscript. I would like to thank the students and faculty in Wilfrid Laurier’s Religion and Culture department as well as the faculty in the Religious Studies department at the University of Waterloo for their ongoing support. Special appreciation must go to Rory Dickson, Adam Stewart, and Asma Bala. I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Lorne L. Dawson, and long-time friend and mentor, Robert A. Campbell, who provided helpful advice gleaned from years of experience. I would like to thank my parents, who, while oft en wondering what exactly an academic does, always encouraged my pursuits. Your love is boundless, and I am forever in your debt. I am also grateful to my father-in-law, mother-in-law, and Iyah for their love and endless support. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Harshi, who is not only patient and loving, but, as it turns out, also a shrewd editor. Th is book is dedi- cated to you. FOREWORD In his history of the church in the nineteenth century Alec Vidler pointed out that many of the great Victorian atheists turned against religion not because of the rise of biblical criticism or the rise of science but because what Christianity called upon them to believe with a sense of its moral superiority struck them as morally inferior to their own beliefs and standards. If that is true, as I believe it to be, why then has it taken 150 years for the conviction of a few people then to become the cheering crowds of today. One of the strengths of Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal is that whatever the strengths or weaknesses of the arguments put forward in the new atheism, it is a truly remarkable phenomenon and therefore needs to be understood from a range of perspectives. Th is book tries to do just that. Th ere have of course always been atheists. What distinguishes the attack dogs of the new atheism from their more philosophically inclined predecessors is that they believe religion to be not only untrue, but also pernicious, an evil or poison that needs to be eliminated from the bloodstream of society. Th e new atheism’s predominant tone is one of intellectual righteousness— new atheists like to call themselves ‘Th e Brights’—and it is something of a moral crusade. Such a widespread explosion has only now ignited the fuse lit by the Victorian unbelievers referred to by Alec Vidler, I think, because of two main

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