Luke Savage’s vicious (and misleading) atheist bashing

[trotsky]

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/vicious-and-misleading-atheist-bashing/

I was curious because several readers called my attention to an article in Jacobin by Luke Savage (someone I can’t find out much about) called “New Atheism, Old Empire.” And its subtitle tells you the point: “The ‘New Atheists’ have gained traction because they give intellectual cover to Western imperialism.”

What? That’s a new one on me. New Atheists are all engaged in justifying imperialism? I was going to show the header picture, but (probably realizing the falsity of this blanket claim) Jacobin changed the picture since yesterday: it formerly featured a montage of Bill Maher, Lawrence Krauss, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, and Richard Dawkins, few of whom could be considered defenders of imperialism. Now only Hitchens is shown.

...

The one thing Savage gets right is that what’s “new” about New Atheism is its infusion with science and the desire to examine religious doctrines with empiricism and reason. But, as we’ll see in a minute, Savage thinks that’s a fool’s errand.

As for the imperialism and bloodthirstiness of New Atheists, you can get that only by extreme cherry-picking, as in the case of Sam’s musings about torture. Those were Gedankenexperiments, of course. And those “genocidal preemptive nuclear strikes”? Another philosophical thought experiment, as are most of the statements that Savage uses to paint Sam as a genocidal maniac. Hitchens was opposed to totalitarianism in all forms, which is the reason he unwisely favored the Iraq war, but favoring the curtailing of civil liberties? Really? Didn’t Hitchens stand up against the fatwas and the suppression of the Danish cartoons as violations of freedom of expression?

Figures Jerry Coyne would dispatch that hit piece against "New Atheists" with ease.

[rug]

1. I don't think you understand what "dispatch" means as a noun.

[Goblinmonger]

2. It's a verb in that sentence.

[rug]

3. You're correct. I read it as with dispatch.

He still doesn't know what it means.

[skepticscott]

4. Yes, but I doubt

this will be getting one of the coveted Good Read! (r) awards from the clan.

[trotsky]

6. Oh, absolutely not.

Would be nice if anyone who praised the hit piece could take the time to address this critique of it.

But it's more important to promote hatred toward "New Atheists," and by extension anyone else who isn't a quiet, "yay religion" type atheist at the same time.

[Prophet 451]

5. Interesting, thanks for posting

[MellowDem]

7. That picture was disingenuous...

as was that whole silly article. Reminds of how damn religious and conservative the US is, the left here is still incredibly disposed to religion, even explicitly bigoted ones. And Jacobin is supposed to be "far" left, not center right like the Democratic Party, which is incredibly religious and panders to religious bigots for votes all the time. No national Democratic politician can even be out about their atheism. There is still way too much religious privilege in the US and on the American left for progressive atheists to feel like they have much of a home. Every Pope Francis thread where people fall over themselves to praise a misogynistc bigot reminds me of that. Hell, many atheists on the left defend this privilege because, I guess, it's all they know. "Don't be so hard on the misogynstic bigot, he says things in a nicer tone".

And criticizing religion is still seen as tantamount to racism or bigotry itself because of this privilege. It results in me seeing many Democrats curiously defending bigoted belief systems because to criticize them is bigoted. Privilege warps people's minds.

[skepticscott]

8. It's rather ironic too

that many of the people who profess uncomprehension about what Hitchens meant when he said that religion poisons everything, are poster children for exactly what he was talking about. The need to defend religion at any cost has them so intellectually compromised that they can't ever dig themselves out of the hole.