Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) (40 page)

September 11 was by no means the first straw on the atheist’s back. But for many, it was definitely the last.

Joining (or rejoining) the battle: Harris, Dennett, Hitchens . . . and Dawkins again

A book, especially one that is groundbreaking and unique, always takes some time to put together. But in the weeks and months that followed September 11, 2001, four writers and thinkers began working independently on books that would transform the discussion of religion and raise the profile of atheism higher than ever before.

The close timing of their books and the similarity of their messages — that religion shouldn’t just be automatically tolerated but should be held to the same critical standard of reason as everything else in human life — caused them to be clumped together in the public mind. They came to be called “The Four Horsemen” and their approach “The New Atheism.”

Between the summer of 2004 and the summer of 2006, atheism went from buzzing gadfly on the fringe of the culture to a high profile hot topic. The movement gained a face and a voice. Even though many atheists and humanists protested that this more aggressive, confrontational voice didn’t speak for them, it did something every movement needs — staked a claim at the outer edge, allowing the other atheists and humanists to set up their tents in the huge new space they helped define.

These sections introduce these four writers. For a more in-depth look at the books they wrote that changed atheism, head over to
Chapter 13
.

Sam Harris

The first of the four voices to appear in book form was probably the least likely — a previously unpublished and little known student of philosophy and the human mind by the name of Sam Harris. When he started knocking on publishers’ doors in 2003 with a broadside against religion called
The End of Faith,
he was stepping completely out of the shadows. The book did find a publisher, which officially started the four-act opera of smart, articulate, non-word-mincing atheist bestsellers.

So without much of a résumé, how did Sam Harris get the attention of publishers and eventually the world? He did it the old-fashioned way — by writing and thinking original thoughts with extraordinary clarity and intelligence. He later earned his PhD in neuroscience and wrote several other bestsellers, including
Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape,
and
Lying.

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins was next with
The God Delusion,
a more general but no less powerful critique of religion. By the time Dawkins stepped up to the atheist plate, he had 30 years in the big leagues as a well-known public explainer of science. Because of his high profile and his 9/11-inspired commitment to take the gloves off and say what needs saying, Dawkins became the poster child and lightning rod for the New Atheist movement. (Harris preferred his privacy and quiet meditation over public smack downs.)

When you read
The God Delusion —
and I really recommend that you do — you’re likely to be surprised by the tone. Religious critics have spared little effort painting Dawkins as a shrill and strident lunatic. Doing so is easier than answering his arguments, I suppose. And although he can be very direct at times, Dawkins’s approach is so much less maniacal than the public caricature that you’ll keep checking the cover to be sure you’re reading the right book.

For added effect, listen to the audiobook, read by Dawkins. His accent — a cross between a BBC newsreader and Professor McGonagall — is about as far from shrill as you can get.

Daniel Dennett

Act Three of the Four Horsemen is Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University who looks like Santa Claus and thinks like Socrates. He comes across in person and even in writing like an uncle who came up with a really neat idea while fishing and can’t wait to tell you — and the idea ends up changing the way you see the world. His book
Breaking the Spell
is the work of a scholar who finds religion rather fascinating but not true, and by the way not a very good idea. But fascinating!

Dennett brings a calm, scholarly voice to the conversation. He sees religion as a direct consequence of who we are and what we’ve been through as a species. Of the Four Horsemen, Dennett is the one who seems most interested in figuring religion out and finding practical ways to break the spell it holds over people.

Christopher Hitchens

The last Horseman is Christopher Hitchens, who wasn’t a bit nice — and what a waste of good venom if he had been. Hitchens was a
polemicist,
someone who used words to perform drive-by surgery without the patient’s permission. He wrote from a place of deep conviction, and though he could be bitterly funny, he didn’t play games or mince words. This passion, combined with incredible gifts as a writer, resulted in some of the most brilliant, witty, and devastating English prose of the past half century.

Hitchens’s interests and targets went way beyond atheism. He tore apart Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, capitalism, the Left, the Right, and even Mother Teresa before turning his attention to religion itself. The 2007 book that earned his Horsemanship has the typically uncompromising title
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
(More on that in
Chapter 13
.)

Hearing the Chorus of New Atheists: We Are Here, We Are Here, We Are Here!

Whether the New Atheist books made a lot more atheists, or just empowered a lot of people who were already atheists to stand up a little taller and speak up a little louder, is hard to say. Probably both. Either way, a huge chorus of new atheist voices and awareness campaigns rose up to join them in the decade after 9/11. Some are dedicated to “the end of faith,” whereas others focus on reaching out to the closeted nonreligious — estimated to number more than 50 million in the United States alone.

In both cases, it’s a bit like the Whos on the speck in
Horton Hears a Who!
shouting, “We are
here,
we are
here,
we are
here!
” to get the outside world to see and hear them. Buoyed by their greater numbers and higher profile, atheists are ready to be recognized as a valid and viable part of the culture.

Some signs indicate that this recognition is beginning to take root. After the 2012 re-election of US President Barack Obama, several pollsters noted that the nonreligious had been among Obama’s most crucial voting blocs. One researcher with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life called it “a striking development in American politics,” adding that “the religiously unaffiliated are a very important, politically consequential group.”

The following sections describe a few ways that atheists and other nonreligious people have attempted to make their presence better known.

Calling out from billboards and buses

Billboard and bus advertising campaigns by atheist groups have received a lot of attention in recent years. The first in recent years went up in January 2008 with a simple message — “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone” — against a blue sky. Others take direct aim at religion. Examples include the following:

Are You Good Without God? Millions Are:
Also against a blue sky background. FreeThoughtAction, American Humanist Association, and the United Coalition of Reason sponsored this billboard.

Imagine No Religion / Beware of Dogma:
Letters appeared in stained glass design on this billboard by the Freedom From Religion Foundation
.