The Undergraduate Atheists’ Thesis
By Massimo Pigliucci | January 21st 2014 05:30 AM
I am not particularly friendly to the so-called New Atheism.
While I respect (and often respectfully disagree with) Dan Dennett, I have been a fairly strong critic of Dawkins, Harris, and the late Hitchens (not to mention other NAs, such as Jerry Coyne).
I have even written a technical paper analyzing the NA movement from a philosophical perspective.
So it was with some interest that I recently read a piece by David V. Johnson at 3QuarksDaily, entitled A refutation of the undergraduate atheists, which promised to deliver some guilty pleasure for my weekend readings. It did deliver, but only in part. In the following I will outline Johnsons arguments and where, I think, he goes astray. I have also invited him to respond here at Rationally Speaking, and he has graciously agreed, so stay tuned for a follow up.
http://www.science20.com/rationally_speaking/undergraduate_atheists%E2%80%99_thesis-127842