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The New Atheism, Myth, and History Nathan Johnstone the New Atheism, Myth, and History The New Atheism, Myth, and History Nathan Johnstone The New Atheism, Myth, and History The Black Legends of Contemporary Anti-Religion Nathan Johnstone North Shields, UK ISBN 978-3-319-89455-3 ISBN 978-3-319-89456-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89456-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018939753 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations. Cover design by Fatima Jamadar Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Jackie Eales ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This was supposed to be a short book. In sharing the fate of so many continuously expanding ‘short’ books, its writing incurred numerous debts over several years. In particular, I must thank Kat Urbantat, Philip Hastie, Fiona Hastie, David Grandville, Nikki Veck and Ellen Cutter for support, encouragement and diversions as required. My family went far beyond the call of duty, and the book, quite simply, could not have been written without them. Richard Eales read a number of chapters and was generous with both his support and his advice. Andrew Palmer and Wayne Veck, however, bore the brunt of the book’s evolution. They read material and, at one time or another, heard, discussed and re-discussed every argument in the book. It is, I believe, much improved by their nuanced suggestions and critiques, and I am deeply grateful. Over two decades ago Jackie Eales took me on as a Ph.D. student and became the mentor that all aspiring historians should wish for. Her sup- port, guidance and friendship has been unfaltering ever since, and it is to her, with gratitude and affection, that this book is dedicated. vii CONTENTS 1 Introduction: History and the New Atheism 1 A Question Only for Science? 2 Virtuous Evidentialism: Explorers and Hunter-Gatherers 5 The New Atheism and History 7 A Defence of History 8 Part I Black Legends 2 Superstition and the Stake: Witch-Hunting and the Terrible Consequences of Believing in the Supernatural 19 The Illusion of Polemical Effciency 20 Rationalist History and Rationalist Mythology 23 Numbers (and Their Meaning) 26 No Witch-Hunt Without Witches 30 The Witch Pyres of ‘the Inquisition’ 33 Christianity and the Witch-Hunts 38 The Lesson of the Witch-Hunt 43 3 Faith and the Stake: Heresy and Religious Totalitarianism 49 Why Is Persecution Natural to Religion? 50 Medieval Heresy and the Persecuting Society 54 ix x CONTENTS What Was Medieval Heresy? 56 Searching for a Newly Old Faith 57 Reform and Heresy 59 The Cathars: Did They Exist, and What Does It Tell the New Atheism If They Did Not? 62 The Coming of the Inquisitions 67 Politics and Persecution 68 The New Elite and the War Over Orthodoxy 74 4 Chalking Up Six Million Deaths to Religion: Appropriating the Holocaust 85 Whose Hitler? The Acid Test of Ethical Claims in the God Debate 87 Hitler’s Bible and the Bible’s Hitler 90 Trusting Historians to Do Their Job 98 Nazism as a Political Religion 100 New Atheism and the Demands of Political Religion Theory 103 The Holy Reich Controversy 108 Part II Minds in Opposition 5 The Rational Tradition and Atomism 127 Epistemological Truths and Weak Minds 130 Filling in the Details 133 Greek Atomism in Context 136 Nightmares of the Christian Mind 143 Christianity and the Revival of Atomism 144 Atomism, the Church and Galileo 149 6 Heroes and Martyrs: Witch-Hunting and the Dangers of Scepticism 161 How George Lincoln Burr’s History of Dietrich Flade Didn’t Make It into The End of Faith 163 Friedrich Spee and the Devil 168 Contents xi Part III The Innocence of Atheism 7 The Hostile Utopia: Atheist Oppression and the Assault on Religion in the USSR 185 The Soviet Assault on Religion 187 Only Anti-clericalism? 190 The Soviet ‘New Man’ and the End of Religion 193 History with the Cycles Left Out 197 Desacralisation and Didactic Sacrilege 201 Utopian Hostility: The Psychological Oppression of Believers in the Soviet Union 206 8 From the Spanish Toca to the American Waterboard: The Strange Yardstick of Ethical Progress 221 Torture: Then and Perhaps Now 222 Torture: Europe’s Rational Innovation 224 The Harris Method: A Superior Rationality? 227 Crimen Exceptum 231 Islam as Crimen Exceptum 234 A New Superior Rationality, or Old-Fashioned Moral Panic? 238 9 Atheism, Religion and the Myth of Cultural Distance 245 The Temptation to Supernaturalism 247 Death and the Temptation to Religion 251 Resistance, Regeneration and Election 252 Belief: The Twenty-First-Century Heresy 256 10 The Moderation of the Unfnished Thought: Militancy, Polemical Cavalierism and Atheisms 263 Hoping for the End of Religion…and Its Consequences 264 The Moderation of the Unfnished Thought 270 Religion as Child Abuse 272 Viruses of the Mind, Public Health Crises and Containment Protocols 274 Bibliography 283 Index 299 ABBREVIATIONS AAG A. C. Grayling, Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and An Essay on Kindness (London: Oberon Books, 2007) AMfCA Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists (Durham: Pitchstone, 2013) AWNtCotH Hector Avelos, ‘Atheism Was Not the Cause of the Holocaust’, in Loftus, J. W. (ed.), The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2010) BtS Daniel C. Dennet, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (London: Penguin, 2007) FW Hector Avelos, Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2005) GatA Victor Stenger, God and the Atom. From Democritus to the Higgs Boson: The Story of a Triumphant Idea (Amherst: Prometheus, 2013) GatFoF Victor Stenger, God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion (Amherst: Prometheus, 2012) GiNG Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (London: Atlantic Books, 2008) IDoA Michel Onfray, In Defence of Atheism: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam, trans. J. Leggatt (London: Serpent’s Tail, 2007) TEoF Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004) TGA A. C. Grayling, The God Argument: The Case against Religion and for Humanism (London: Bloomsbury, 2013) TGD Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (London: Black Swan, 2007) xiii xiv Abbreviations TGV Darrel W. Ray, The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture (Boner Springs: IPC Press, 2009) TNA Victor Stenger, The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason (Amherst: Prometheus, 2009) TPA Christopher Hitchens (ed.), The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever (London: Da Capo Press, 2007) TtL A. C. Grayling, Towards the Light: The Story of the Struggles for Liberty and Rights that Made the Modern West (London: Bloomsbury, 2007) UtR Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Popular Appetite for Wonder (London: Penguin, 1999) WiG A. C. Grayling,What is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live (London: Phoenix, 2004).
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