Ciência moderna, religião e os novos ateístas

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the discourse of the main new atheists authors, from a viewpoint that considers new atheism as a current movement that, unlike traditional atheism, has an agenda that is not only philosophical but also decidedly political and cultural. It emerges as a reaction to the terrorist attacks to the World Trade Center in 2001, and particularly in response to the resurgence and increasing cultural and political influence of Christian Neo-fundamentalism in the United States starting in the 1970’s. In the perception of new atheists, religion is becoming a politically organized force on the rise both within and outside the US, and that the evaluation of these actors can be defined as dangerous, destructive and irrational, given the actions of the US religious right, the actions of radical extremists Islamic, and finally, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The authors analyzed here understand the new atheist posture as critical and refreshing. In our assessment, however, this stance despite being different from traditional atheism is what we understand to be a "Neo-secularist-fundamentalisms" whose promoters also convey effectively radical ideas in the current North American political-cultural context characterized, as noted by James Hunter, by a real culture war.