He found that there are much lower concentrations of atheism and secularity in poorer, less developed nations (particularly in Africa and South America) than in the richer industrialized democracies. New York. A collection of essays by Christian apologists that addresses challenges from New Atheists and other contemporary critics of Christianity. Second, if the content of morality is not made accessible to human beings by means of a revelation of God’s will, then how do humans know what the one moral standard is? [24], Since conceptions of atheism vary, accurate estimations of current numbers of atheists are difficult.

This moral component sets them apart from other prominent historical atheists such as Nietzsche and Sartre, and it plays a pivotal role in their arguments because it is used to conclude that religion is bad in various ways, although Dennett is more reserved than the other three. Fundamentality and Apophatic Theology", "Common Misconceptions About Atheists and Atheism", "Atheism, Secularity, and Well-Being: How the Findings of Social Science Counter Negative Stereotypes and Assumptions", "Societies without God are more benevolent", "Religiousness and mental health: a review", International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, "Epicurus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)", Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism: An Introductory Study, Freethought Traditions in the Islamic World, "Reflections on the Revolution in France", "White Paper—Freedom of Religious Belief in China", "International Religious Freedom Report 2007 — China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)", "Myth 27 Many Atrocities Have Been Committed in the Name of Atheism", "Vashti McCollum, 93, Plaintiff In a Landmark Religion Suit – Obituary", "The atheists' calling the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking its latest battle to the U.S. Supreme court. Hitchens includes chapters entitled “The Metaphysical Claims of Religion are False” and “Arguments from Design,” but his more journalistic treatment of the cases for and against God’s existence amounts primarily to the claim that the God hypothesis is unnecessary, since science can now explain what theism was formerly thought to be required to explain, including phenomena such as the appearance of design in the universe.

Harris quotes passages from the part of the Old Testament traditionally labeled the “Law” that he considers barbaric (such as the command in Deuteronomy 13 to stone family members or close friends to death if they “secretly entice you” to “go worship other gods”) and then asserts (on the basis of his view that Jesus can be read to endorse the entirety of Old Testament law) that the New Testament does not improve on these injunctions. Baggini argues that atheism is a superior basis for ethics, claiming that a moral basis external to religious imperatives is necessary to evaluate the morality of the imperatives themselves—to be able to discern, for example, that "thou shalt steal" is immoral even if one's religion instructs it—and that atheists, therefore, have the advantage of being more inclined to make such evaluations. [80]

McGrath, Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath. [227][228], "New Atheism" is the name that has been given to a movement among some early-21st-century atheist writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises.

He follows up in The God Delusion with the claim that faith is an evil because it does not require justification and does not tolerate argument. Dawkins further states that the God hypothesis creates a vicious regress rather than terminating one. [190] He was followed by two other explicit atheist writers, the Polish ex-Jesuit philosopher Kazimierz Łyszczyński and in the 1720s by the French priest Jean Meslier. Atheism has sometimes been defined to include the simple absence of belief that any deities exist. Who then knows whence it has arisen? With contributions from Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, the volume also presents diversity in regard to religious/irreligious commitment, with contributions from atheists, theists and more agnostic orientations.

The term 'atheist' was an insult. After considering the standard arguments for God’s existence and rehearsing standard objections to them, Dennett argues that the concept of God is insufficiently determinate for it to be possible to know what proposition is at issue in the debate over God’s existence. Criticisms have been raised about a number of the New Atheists claims mentioned above.

[234], It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists in the world. [256] When asked whether they have "seen or heard traces of atheism in [their] locality, community, and society" only about 3% to 8% responded yes in all the countries surveyed. "[59] The books, which include Daniel Dennett 's Breaking the Spell, Richard Dawkins 's The God Delusion, and Christopher Hitchens 's God is Not Great, have sparked considerable public controversy across the political spectrum.

[253] According to a PRRI survey, 24% of the population is unaffiliated. Secular Buddhism does not advocate belief in gods. [177], Historian Geoffrey Blainey wrote that the Reformation had paved the way for atheists by attacking the authority of the Catholic Church, which in turn "quietly inspired other thinkers to attack the authority of the new Protestant churches".