The origins of aggressive atheism

But there’s also a sense, at least in reading Atheist Awakening, that derision toward faith among outspoken atheists is partially a product of accumulated bitterness. “It is hard not to come to the conclusion that atheists have spent a far greater deal of time thinking and writing about religion than religious people ever have of atheists as a group,” the authors write. American voters disapprove of atheist politicians; parents dread the possibility of atheist boyfriends and girlfriends for their kids; and in general, the public feels less warmly toward non-believers than almost any other faith. Being an atheist means defining oneself in opposition to theism, but that doesn’t necessarily go both ways. America is a land of ambient distrust of people who don’t believe in God, but mostly in the way of a high school full of queen-bee cool kids and nearly invisible geeks.

This milieu shaped the rise of what you might call aggressive atheism, the kind that mocks and dismisses religious belief. As Cimino and Smith point out, this outspokenness has helped atheism gain visibility and coherency as a movement. But it also has downsides.

“In accepting a label, particularly the label of ‘atheist,’ it seems to me that we are consenting to be viewed as a cranky sub-culture,” said the writer Sam Harris at an Atheist Alliance conference in 2007. “We are consenting to be viewed as a marginal interest group that meets in hotel ballrooms. … As a matter of strategy, we have walked into a trap.”