by Dave Miller, Ph.D. Among a growing number of philosophers, intellectuals, and scholars, atheism is in decline in the world. Two reasons have been posited for this circumstance: (1) atheism is losing its scientific underpinnings, and (2) like [some diety based] religion, atheism has produced its own share of lunatics, frauds, & psychopaths (Siemon-Netto, 2005). The former reason is no doubt spurred by the fact that the theory of evolution, as repeatedly documented in the work of Apologetics Press, continues to take a beating for its paltry attempts to coerce and bully students and society into accepting its assertions without adequate evidence. <--sounds familiar! Apologetics Press http://www.apologeticspress.org The Decline of ‘Neo Atheism’ The ‘new atheists’, in contrast to the ‘old atheists’, saw that they had a duty or sort of moral obligation to impart their views through popular books and mass media, rather than just keep them internalized. I wouldn’t say the new atheism movement failed. Dawkins, Harris, and Bill Maher, as well as YouTube shows such as Secular Talk and The Amazing ******* Atheist are still popular and influential. In terms of decline, rather, what has happened is that new atheists are facing more criticism and rebuke now than in the past, in part by millennials and gen z. who are more sympathetic to religion even if they aren’t necessarily religious themselves. Many otherwise agnostic and non-theist young people acknowledge the value religion has on society, and unlike in pre-2013 era, are not so quick to dismiss and ridicule it. The new atheists overplayed their hand, becoming too aggressive and dogmatic in their tactics in assuming that everyone else agreed with them, and their atheism was so ‘self-evident’ you’d have to be an ‘unenlightened idiot’ to not agree. They became purveyors of the very intolerance it purported to oppose. (and that has not changed) Additionally, the decline of new atheism is in rejection of how it condescendingly presumes the ignorance and scientific illiteracy of those who disagree with a purely materialistic worldview. If you read Christian websites and writings, the prose is often meticulous and rich with biblical and historical information; these are competent, educated people regardless of their beliefs in evolution. Contrary to the stawmen promulgated by new atheism that Christians “don’t understand evolution and other science,” they actually do, but acknowledge that such theories are limited of scope and or have holes, or rationalize it away. But they know the science arguments very well. There’s a distinction between understanding an argument but questioning or rejecting it, versus being oblivious to it and rejecting it. https://greyenlightenment.com/the-decline-of-new-atheism/ I agree this is why the neoatheist movement is history. their condescending attacks on theists as being dopes, combined with their irrational lack of belief theory and etymological fallacy that they base their premise upon has long since backfired and they shot themselves in the foot to go down in history as another has been here today gone tomorrow cult religious movement.
Once DNA and DNA sequencing were discovered the game was over for you people. Evolution is mainstream science. Of course we now have direct observation of a new species evolving. https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/new-species-evolve-in-just-two-generations
Fallacy of ad populum. Even if this is true (your citation is an apologetic website so that isn’t biased) is that relevant to the truth?
Ignorance of science is not a very effective defense. The new gene splicing techniques have nothing to do with selective breeding.
Do you have any actual data that would prove that athiesm is in decline worldwide. There is solid data that religion is in decline in the US which I assume means athiesm and/ or agnosticism and / or I don't care is increasing.
Actually here is an interesting article: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...-decline-as-a-share-of-the-worlds-population/
Somebody tell the village atheists here. Their notion that Christianity is in decline and they are on the rise is false.
That is true as I posted. The actual truth is athiesm is on the rise in the developed/ educated world and Religion is on the rise in the third world. To put it simply education eliminates superstition.
The "growing number" is undefined even as a percentage and "philosophers, intellectuals, and scholars" have no means of determining the world atheist population because it's not directly measured by anyone. Statistically all that we know is that the number of those that express a religious belief has been declining since the 1950 when about 2% declined to answer if they had a religious belief to roughly 16% of respondents in 2010 that declined to answer a question about whether they have a religious belief or not.
No and that is why religion is on the rise in these countries. That snd of course the fact that authoritaian rules is decreasing so another means of keeping the masses pacified is required. " Religion is the opiate of the masses"
atheism is a negation of theism not religion. You must mean replacing one superstition with another/ whats that? yeh, american cities, you know the land of the free and all that ****, they are running around with rulers fining people if their grass is over 6". it would seem so.
You do realize that people have a choice as to where they want to live. And we have already had the discussion about religion requiring belief in a god or the supernatural and you have yet to find one religion that contains neither.
I remember you expressing or more accurately parroting statist views on the matter, com,pletely inaccurate as they were, satanism is a state recognized Godless religion, your point?
