New Atheism or Neo-Atheism, sometimes referred to as scientific atheism, is a 21st-century movement attributed to some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers opposed to superstition, religion, and irrationalism. New Atheists advocate the antitheist view that the various forms of theism should be examined, countered by rational and scientific arguments, and criticised, especially when they exert strong influence on the broader society, such as in government, education, and politics.
Major figures of New Atheism include Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, sometimes collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen" of the movement. Proponents of the New Atheist movement have experienced criticism from academics and other atheists.
Origins and terminology The term New Atheism is usually traced to Gary Wolf's 2006 Wired article "The Church of the Non-Believers", in which he introduced the label in a critical context and portrayed writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett as unusually strident and combative critics of religion. Scholars have often treated it as a label that emerged from media discussion rather than as the name of a clearly defined school of thought. James E. Taylor writes that the label arose from journalistic commentary on books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens, while Christopher R. Cotter describes the early discussion of New Atheism as "scholarly, but largely journalistic". Thomas Zenk likewise argues that New Atheism is an umbrella term rooted in public discourse and cautions against using it uncritically as an analytical category; he also notes that the label does not necessarily correspond to the self-identification of those to whom it is applied. Steven Kettell argues that the label's popularisation was not merely descriptive, but also encouraged the view that a small group of atheist writers were both unusually militant and philosophically unoriginal.
Prominent figures
The "Four Horsemen"
Key figures associated with New Atheism include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The four are often collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen", an allusion to the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation. Before her 2023 conversion to Christianity, writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali was sometimes referred to as the fifth "Horseman" or "Horsewoman" of New Atheism.
Harris's 2004 book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, a bestseller in the United States, was joined over the next couple of years by a series of bestsellers by atheist authors. Harris was motivated by the events of 11 September 2001, for which he blamed Islam, while also directly criticizing Christianity and Judaism. Two years later, Harris followed up with Letter to a Christian Nation, which was a severe criticism of Christianity. Later Harris wrote several bestselling non-fiction books including The Moral Landscape, and Waking Up, along with two shorter works (initially published as e-books) Free Will and Lying.
Dawkins is the founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. In 2006, following his television documentary series The Root of All Evil?, he published The God Delusion, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 51 weeks. Dawkins writes in the introduction to the 10th anniversary edition of the book: "I don't object to the horseman label, by the way. I'm less keen on 'new atheist': it isn't clear to me how we differ from old atheists."
On 30 September 2007, Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and Dennett met at Hitchens' residence in Washington, D.C., for a private two-hour unmoderated round table discussion. The event was videotaped and titled "The Four Horsemen". During "The God Debate" in 2010 with Hitchens versus Dinesh D'Souza, the group was collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse".
Hitchens, the author of God Is Not Great, was named among the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. He served on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. In 2010, Hitchens published his memoir Hitch-22 (a nickname provided by close personal friend Salman Rushdie, whom Hitchens always supported during and following The Satanic Verses controversy). Shortly after its publication, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which led to his death in December 2011. Before his death, Hitchens published a collection of essays and articles in his book Arguably; a short edition, Mortality, was published posthumously in 2012. These publications and numerous public appearances provided Hitchens with a platform to remain an astute atheist during his illness, even speaking specifically on the culture of deathbed conversions and condemning attempts to convert the terminally ill, which he opposed as "bad taste".
Dennett was the author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Breaking the Spell. He had been a vocal supporter of The Clergy Project, an organization that provides support for clergy in the US who no longer believe in God and cannot fully participate in their communities any longer. He was also a member of the Secular Coalition for America advisory board, and a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, as well as an outspoken supporter of the Brights movement. He did research into clerics who are secretly atheists and how they rationalize their works. He found what he called a "don't ask, don't tell" conspiracy because believers did not want to hear of loss of faith. This made unbelieving preachers feel isolated, but they did not want to lose their jobs and church-supplied lodgings. Generally, they consoled themselves with the belief that they were doing good in their pastoral roles by providing comfort and required ritual. The research, with Linda LaScola, was further extended to include other denominations and non-Christian clerics.Podcast: interview with Daniel Dennett. Further developments of the research: pastors, priests, and an Imam who are closet atheists. . The research and stories Dennett and LaScola accumulated during this project were published in their 2013 co-authored book, Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind.
The book The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution was released in 2019.
Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American writer, politician, and well-known critic of Islam. She was a central figure of New Atheism until she announced her conversion to Christianity in November 2023. Originally scheduled to attend the 2007 meeting, she later appeared with Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention, where she was referred to as the "one horse-woman" by Dawkins. Robyn Blumner, CEO of the Center for Inquiry, has described Hirsi Ali as the fifth "horseman". Hirsi Ali has been vocal in opposing Islamic ideology, especially concerning women, as exemplified by her books Infidel and The Caged Virgin.
Others
Others have either self-identified as or been classified by some commentators as new atheists:
Dan Barker (b. 1949), author of Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists Peter Boghossian (b. 1966), philosopher and author of A Manual for Creating Atheists Greta Christina (b. 1961), author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things that Piss Off the Godless Jerry Coyne (b. 1949), author of Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are IncompatiblePigliucci, Massimo (2013). New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement Midwest Studies In Philosophy, Vol. 37 (1): pp. 142-153. Rebecca Goldstein (b. 1950), philosopher and author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God Michel Onfray (b. 1959), author of Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam Michael Schmidt-Salomon (b. 1967) author of Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism and identified as Germany's "Chief Atheist""...sagte Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Vorstand der Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung und damit so etwas wie Deutschlands Chef-Atheist." ("...said Michael Schmidt-Salomon, [who is] chairman of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, and therefore something of a 'chief atheist' for Germany.") Chef-Atheist im Chat: "Gynäkologen, die an die Jungfrauengeburt glauben", Spiegel Online, 29 May 2007 (Accessed 6 April 2008) TJ Kirk (b. 1985), YouTube personality and podcast host known for his YouTube Channel Amazing Atheist Rebecca Watson (b. 1980), author of the blog Skepchick Victor J. Stenger (1935–2014), author of God: The Failed Hypothesis
Some writers sometimes classified as new atheists by others have explicitly distanced themselves from the label:
A. C. Grayling (b. 1949), philosopher and author of The God Argument John W. Loftus (b. 1954), author of The Outsider Test For Faith P. Z. Myers (b. 1957), writer and biologist. Author of the blog Pharyngula
Perspective
Many contemporary atheists write from a scientific perspective. Unlike previous writers, many of whom thought that science was indifferent or even incapable of dealing with the "God" concept, Dawkins argues to the contrary, claiming the "God Hypothesis" is a valid scientific hypothesis, having effects in the physical universe, and like any other hypothesis can be tested and falsified. Victor Stenger proposed that the personal Abrahamic God is a scientific hypothesis that can be tested by standard methods of science. Both Dawkins and Stenger conclude that the hypothesis fails any such tests,Stenger, 2008 and argue that naturalism is sufficient to explain everything we observe. They argue that it is unnecessary to introduce God or the supernatural to understand reality.
Scientific testing of religion Non-believers (in religion and the supernatural) assert that many religious or supernatural claims (such as the virgin birth of Jesus and the afterlife) are scientific claims in nature. For instance, they argue, as do deists and Progressive Christians, that the issue of Jesus' supposed parentage is a question of scientific inquiry, rather than values or morals. Proponents believe science is capable of investigating at least some, if not all, supernatural claims. Institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and Duke University have conducted empirical studies to try to identify whether there is evidence for the healing power of intercessory prayer. According to Stenger, the experiments found no evidence that intercessory prayer worked.
Logical arguments In his book God: The Failed Hypothesis, Victor Stenger argues that a God having omniscient, omnibenevolent, and omnipotent attributes, which he termed a 3O God, cannot logically exist. A similar series of alleged logical disproofs of the existence of a God with various attributes can be found in Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier's The Impossibility of God, or Theodore Drange's article, "Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey".
Views on non-overlapping magisteria Richard Dawkins has been particularly critical of the conciliatory view that science and religion are not in conflict, noting, for example, that the Abrahamic religions constantly dabble in scientific matters. In a 1998 article published in Free Inquiry magazine, and later in his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins expresses disagreement with the view advocated by Stephen Jay Gould that science and religion are two non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA), each existing in a "domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution".