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Introduction

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New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates

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Abstract

Whether understood in a narrow sense as the popular works of a small number of (white male) authors, or as a larger more diffuse movement, over the past decade or so scholars, journalists, and activists from all ‘sides’ in the atheism versus theism debate, have noted the emergence of a particular form of atheism frequently dubbed ‘New Atheism’. Exactly what this New Atheism is, or who ought to count as a New Atheist, is not an issue that we sought to set out, or determine, in any strict sense at the beginning of the project, rather we have left such considerations as matters best determined by our contributors; our reasoning on this point is something we will return to shortly.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although, as shall be evidenced from the chapters that follow—Lee ’s in particular—the ‘New Atheism’ can be understood as having impacts far beyond the (‘merely’) intellectual.

  2. 2.

    The writings of other atheists who have a distinctly ‘anti-New Atheism’ thrust could also be included here, such as Alain de Botton ’s Religion for Atheists (2012).

  3. 3.

    Notable examples include Tina Beattie ’s The New Atheists (2007), Alister McGrath ’s The Twilight of Atheism (2005) and David Fergusson ’s Faith and Its Critics (2009).

  4. 4.

    Since then, there have been a number of landmark publications in these areas, including Christel Manning ’s Losing Our Religion: How Unaffiliated Parents Are Raising Their Children (2015), Tiina Mahlamäki ’s ‘Religion and atheism from a gender perspective’ (2012), and Lori Beaman ’s ‘Freedom of and Freedom from Religion: Atheist Involvement in Legal Cases’ (2015).

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Acknowledgements

Before leaving you in the capable hands of our contributors, we would like to express our gratitude to a number of people without whom this project would not have been possible. Our thanks go out to Sarah Hitchen at Lancaster University for organizing the (New) Atheism, Scientism and Open-Mindedness conference that sparked off the conversation that culminated in this volume. To the contributors themselves, we are most grateful for their contributions and patience in seeing this project come to fruition. Thanks also to Stephen Bullivant for writing his important and helpfully kudos-enhancing Foreword. This publication would not have been possible without the dedicated and patient work of the editorial team at Springer, to whom we express our sincere appreciation. Words cannot express the debt we owe to Carole Cusack for some much needed ‘Caroleing’ at various stages in the process. And Cotter and Quadrio have been blown away by the support and input—both academic and collegial—from Jonathan Tuckett, who joined the project relatively late in the day and brought both the fresh perspective and renewed vitality it clearly needed.

Chris Cotter would like to thank his doctoral supervisor, Kim Knott, for her continued indulgence and support of his extra-curricular publications, and his former supervisor and BASR colleague, Steven Sutcliffe, for nurturing his initial academic interest in ‘New Atheism.’ Gratitude also goes out to the directors, web team, and members of the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network for helping to sustain this interest, to Bob and Sally Cotter, and, of course, to Lindsey … but she knows that’s a gibbon.

Philip Quadrio thanks Carrol, Raeginn and Darian for their constant support and Carolyn and Silvio for vital familial support. Also, on the more practical front, he thanks Paris Mawby for his regular assistance, Carole Cusack for her advice in the project as a whole, and Don Barrett for his fascinating and eloquent views on Australian cricket. Finally, Bob and Barbara Lions whose home he inhabited during the final months of assembling the manuscript, without this generous assistance things would have been much more complicated.

Jonathan Tuckett would like to thank Carole for her confidence in his ‘Tucketting’ skills. To Christopher and Philip for involving him in the project and putting up with said ‘Tucketting’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University, Lancaster, Lancashire, UK

    Christopher R. Cotter

  2. Sydney School of Law, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Philip Andrew Quadrio

  3. Independent Scholar, Edinburgh, UK

    Jonathan Tuckett

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University, Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom

    Christopher R. Cotter

  2. Sydney School of Law, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Philip Andrew Quadrio

  3. Independent Scholar, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Jonathan Tuckett

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Cotter, C.R., Quadrio, P.A., Tuckett, J. (2017). Introduction. In: Cotter, C., Quadrio, P., Tuckett, J. (eds) New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54964-4_1

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