late 90’s and holding sway until about 2010 or 15 was the “New Atheist” movement. It very aggressively ridiculed a belief in God, and since this was the West, it was mainly disparaging and critical of Christians.
But that “New Atheist” movement sort of flamed out, and one rarely even hears about it these days.
Why?
Well, one reason is that Theism has become much more culturally salient. One great example is that Neo-Darwinism has increasingly come under cogent scientific attack. That is, chemical evolution has simply failed to explain things. One can argue that it will eventually get there, but that is a statement of faith, not an exposition of fact.
I mean, it’s no revelation at all that through selective breeding I can get certain attributes in dogs or cattle or whatever. But that is biological evolution. And THAT is trivial to the point of being a truism–it is just a hackneyed old chestnut.
But chemical evolution is where the ideological money is. How did life begin? How do we go from inert chemicals to a living entity? And if that entity dies, just what have we lost? What is different now? Can you reverse the process?
And in all these years of hard work, why are we still so far from being able to do it? Mary Shelley published “Frankenstein” in 1818, and we are still no closer to the goal? We are still saying that lightening striking a warm “primordial soup” started life? Really?
The problem is NOT the survival of the fittest. It is the arrival of the fittest that is the real question!
Another reason for the change in the New Atheists is that it is very safe to mock Christians for their belief in God. But do that with Muslims they will literally chop your head off. And they have a long memory (ask Salman Rushdie). So the “New Atheists” suddenly piped down. Christians don’t chop your head off or stab you repeatedly for mocking them!
