Thread: Noam Chomsky on "New Atheism"

Originally Posted by Diuretic

junobet you are spot on! As is Chomsky.

As a long-time agnostic I wonder about this New Atheism. I smell a marketing ploy. But anyway, I wonder at the mindset of someone who chooses to define themselves in such singular terms. Yes, you're a New Atheist. Now what?

It's a fad, contains pre-mixed thinking and is probably very high in sodium.

Well, I have to agree with both you and Someone. That it’s just a marketing ploy was my initial answer and to an extend it still is.

But who’s the audience? How come books, whose topics are basically old hats as Chomsky has rightly pointed out, can suddenly become bestsellers and start a movement that is on the best way to become a new eerie cult?

Keith Ward’s explanation was that the new atheists might be motivated by some form of undercover islamophobia after 9/11. Don’t know, there might be something to it, but maybe that’s just a sad side-effect.

Originally Posted by junobet

Well, I have to agree with both you and Someone. That it’s just a marketing ploy was my initial answer and to an extend it still is.

But who’s the audience? How come books, whose topics are basically old hats as Chomsky has rightly pointed out, can suddenly become bestsellers and start a movement that is on the best way to become a new eerie cult?

Keith Ward’s explanation was that the new atheists might be motivated by some form of undercover islamophobia after 9/11. Don’t know, there might be something to it, but maybe that’s just a sad side-effect.

Could be a post-9/11 thing - a pox on all their houses and all that. But it could also be related to local issues. I'm now wondering where it is strongest, most strident as I think it could be a reaction to religiosity. I know it's here in Australia, but to what extent I don't know. A couple of years ago there was an Atheism festival in Melbourne and Dawkins attended, among others. I heard some of the discussions and comments from the audience on the radio and my initial reaction was that I'd stumbled across an undergraduate conference, everyone was so bloody smug and convinced of their own rectitude. Further listening didn't shift me from that initial view. I was glad I wasn't there, I think I would have lost it and punched someone

I can't bloody well stand smug.

Originally Posted by Neutral

Tell me S, what is it like to confront your worst fear? A religious person who is smarter than you?

"Debating" with you is a bit like debating with the furniture, and I won't participate any longer.

Originally Posted by Someone

"Debating" with you is a bit like debating with the furniture, and I won't participate any longer.

Oh, a scatter brain of non-standard accusation and finger pointing? And when someone points out the hysterics of teh pacifist warrior, suddenly you are offended, and like so many of your peers, fixated that someone would dare succesfully challenge you?

So, tell me S, what is it like to meet your worst fear? To be reduced to sullen anger so quickly? To find that there is a religious person who is smarter than you? Scary isn't it.

But go ahead, act emotional and accusatory, I am sure it all about me, not you.