“New” New Athiests Don’t Believe in God, But Like Religion

This story came out yesterday at USAToday.  Here’s the premise:

The old atheists said there was no God. The so-called “New Atheists” said there was no God, and they were vocally vicious about it. Now, the new “New Atheists” — call it Atheism 3.0 — say there’s still no God, but maybe religion isn’t all that bad.

This new generation sees the energy being spent attacking the religious better used elsewhere:

…a new crew of nonbelievers is taking on the New Atheists, arguing that while they may not have faith themselves, there’s little reason to belittle believers or push religion out of the public square. The back-and-forth debates over God’s existence have shed a little light, but far more heat, they argue, while the world’s problems loom ever larger.

There’s a suggestion that the pendulum is simply swinging back into a position of balance:

While no one expects the God debate to end any time soon, in the meantime, perhaps people can agree to disagree a little more agreeably, the new New Atheists argue.   “There was a moment when atheist books were selling,” [Austin] Dacey said. “But people like objectivity, they like the feeling of balance. So after this wave of atheist books and the criticism that they are extremist, people are trying to find a happy medium.”

Read the whole story at USAToday Religion here.  For those too lazy to click (!) here’s a closing quote:

“The work that we need to do, we atheists, humanists and non-believers, is to build a better world and not try to tear down those with whom we disagree,” said Greg M. Epstein, the Humanist chaplain at Harvard University.  “When our goal is erasing religion, rather than embracing human beings, we all lose.”