“The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God” podcast documentary is just a couple of episodes old but has been wonderful so far. It tracks the rise and fall of New Atheism through the eyes of those who were engaged with it – both as supporters and critics – from the very beginning. It is tied to a book with the same title, and I can recommend the podcast for everyone interested in one of the more influential cultural movements in the English-speaking world in the last 25 years.
The host, Justin Brierley, is well known as irenic and thoughtful and made his mark with his long-running show, Unbelievable. He has interviewed many people through the years who have had something to say about belief in God or the arguments for atheism. As a result, he is uniquely situated to write and produce this podcast documentary.
The first thing that struck me during the first episode was the reminder that New Atheism wasn’t that new, and it certainly was not that intellectually rigorous. Even at the time, if you had some training or background is the area of arguments for belief in God, or the history of atheistic arguments, you had a sense that the best and brightest that New Atheism produced was not all that great. By and large, their arguments were old re-treads that had been dealt with (rather soundly) over the last several hundred years.
Despite the intellectual frailty of their positions, books, and speeches, they managed to put Christians and others on their heels. As the podcast documentary details, they did not do it through force of argument, but largely through bluster and mockery. Several of their leading lights (the so-called “Four Horsemen”) were unabashed, rhetorically gifted, and did not mind dealing with criticism through dismissal or shaming. Dawkins famously refused to “stoop to” debating many philosophers who believed in the existence of God.
New Atheism built itself to be immune to criticism. It dismissed people of faith before anything was said. They failed to do the historical and theological work to be able to differentiate between different religions and their beliefs, thus promoting the generalization that, “religion poisons everything.” As a result, what was created was not primarily an intellectual movement that believed in “provable” assertions, reason, and science, but a new form of fundamentalism.
In the end, New Atheism fell apart and fizzled out in many ways. This is not to say their favorite one-liners are not still alive and well. Plenty of atheists still enjoy pulling out their favorite memes when Christians make the news. But, to my mind, the important insight is about the fundamentalism that built the larger movement. That kind of bluster, arrogance, and refusal to deal with arguments and criticisms is still having the same impact right now. Instead of New Atheism, we call it Wokeism.
How on earth can so many people be convinced that men can give birth? That women should be re-labeled as some kind of “menstruating” creature? That kids can chose their gender? That they can identify as cats? That black men can be labeled, “white supremacists”? That peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a part of “white privilege” (seriously)? How do we get to the point where one of the nine most important justices in the world cannot identify a woman? Why do you feel so much pressure to address people by false pronouns? To believe that you and the people you have known all your life are inherently racist when you have always known better?
This happened in exactly the same way as the rise of New Atheism: bluster, mockery (emotionally powerful propaganda), the support of so-called “experts,” immunity to criticism (cancel culture), and a sizeable percentage of people who simply do not call it for what it is. Believing the creeds that come with the Woke worldview requires someone to jettison everything they know about reality, to build up artificial but devastating animosities, and to never question the latest line. As of the writing of this article, the hatred de jour is antisemitism. Now, apparently, they want us to eliminate the only Jewish state on earth and tacitly support genocide.
One of the consequences we are watching unfold is the medical mutilation of young lives by the trans movement. The “detrans” movement is gaining steam, but you need to look to find it. Our Woke culture wants you to believe that everything is fine, and nobody suffers from the decisions they make because of Queer theory. This is how cultural censorship works – a position is put forward as the only acceptable belief, a lot of cultural weight is thrown behind it, opposing beliefs are mocked or censored (and now, being put in jail), and people simply stop resisting.
Twenty years after the rise of an intellectually frail movement, New Atheism, we can look back with the perspective of time and see how it gained momentum. Let’s not wait twenty years this time. Let’s call the current Woke moment what it is – it is a dangerous falsehood that gets almost everything about the human condition and the existence of God wrong.