Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal

by Amarnath Amarasingam (Editor)

Overview

The term “new atheism” has been given to the recent barrage of bestselling books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and others. Their books have had a significant media presence and have only grown in popularity over the years. This volume will serve to contextualize and critically examine the claims, arguments and goals of this new atheism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608462032
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	09/18/2012
Series:	Studies in Critical Social Sciences
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Amarnath Amarasingam is a doctoral candidate in the Laurier-Waterloo PhD in Religious Studies in Ontario, Canada. He has published articles in The Journal of Contemporary Religion, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, as well as Mental Health, Religion and Culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword, Richard Harries
Preface, Reza Aslan
Introduction: What is the New Atheism?, Amarnath Amarasingam

I. Religion and the New Atheism
Judaism and Atheism: The Challenge of Secular Humanism, Robert Platzner
Beating 'God' to Death: Radical Theology and the New Atheism, Jeffrey Robbins and Christopher Rodkey
Religion as Phantasmagoria: Islam in The End of Faith, Rory Dickson

II. Science and the New Atheism
What Has Atheism Ever Done for Science?, Steve Fuller
Cognitive Science and the New Atheism, William Sims Bainbridge

III. Sociology and the New Atheism
One-Dimensional Rage: The Social Epistemology of the New Atheism and Fundamentalism,
William A. Stahl
The New Atheism and Sociology: Why Here? Why Now? What Next?, Stephen Bullivant
The New Atheism and the Secularization Thesis, Michael Borer
The New Atheism and the Empowerment of American Freethinkers, Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith

IV. Philosophy, Ethics and the New Atheism
Ethics, Out-Group Altruism, and the New Atheism, Gregory R. Peterson
Disparate Destinations, Parallel Paths: An Analysis of Contemporary Atheist and Christian Parenting Literature, Jeff Nall
Is God a Hypothesis? The New Atheism, Contemporary Philosophy of Religion, and Philosophical Confusion, Ryan Falcioni

Afterword, Mark Vernon
About the Authors
References
Index