Difference between revisions of "Essay: The steady grinding down of atheism"
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Atheists have generally done very poorly in debates and recently developed a reputation for dodging debates (see: [[Atheism debates]] and [[Atheism and cowardice]]). | Atheists have generally done very poorly in debates and recently developed a reputation for dodging debates (see: [[Atheism debates]] and [[Atheism and cowardice]]). | ||
| − | Groups/organizations which unsuccessfully meet challenges and/or face future challenges which they believe they cannot successfully overcome, often: are dispirited; experience infighting; have less respect for each other; distance themselves from one another; have members who are less likely to take the initiative; become pessimistic and are also far less effective.<ref>[http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/flourishing-lives.php?p=cGlkPTIzNiZpZD04Nzk= Confidence in teams and organisations], Center For Confidence and well-being]</ref> See: [[Morale]] | + | Groups/organizations which unsuccessfully meet challenges and/or face future challenges which they believe they cannot successfully overcome, often: are dispirited; experience infighting; have less respect for each other; distance themselves from one another; have members who are less likely to take the initiative; become pessimistic and are also far less effective.<ref>[http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/flourishing-lives.php?p=cGlkPTIzNiZpZD04Nzk= Confidence in teams and organisations], Center For Confidence and well-being]</ref> See: [[Morale of the atheist movement]] |
[[File:David Silverman Reason Rally.jpg|thumbnail|left|200px|[[David Silverman]] ]] | [[File:David Silverman Reason Rally.jpg|thumbnail|left|200px|[[David Silverman]] ]] | ||
At the [[2018 American Atheists National Convention]], the ex-president of the [[American Atheists]] organization [[David Silverman]] declared: | At the [[2018 American Atheists National Convention]], the ex-president of the [[American Atheists]] organization [[David Silverman]] declared: | ||
Revision as of 07:58, August 20, 2019
The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines the military tactic of a delaying action thusly: "a defensive military action in which advance of an enemy is delayed by fighting as long as possible without the defensive force becoming involved in decisive battle...".[1]
In their 2010 journal article entitled, Secularism, Fundamentalism or Catholicism? The Religious Composition of the United States to 2043 published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vegard Skirbekk and Anne Goujon wrote about American atheism: "The relatively low fertility of secular Americans and the religiosity of the immigrant inflow provide a countervailing force that will cause the secularization process within the total population to plateau before 2043."[3]
According to the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS), the number of atheists and agnostics in the United States has remained relatively stable in the past 23 years. In 2014, 3% of Americans identified as atheists, and 5% identified as agnostics.[4] In 1991, 2% of Americans identified as atheist, and 4% identified as agnostic.[5]
In June 2016, American Interest reported:
| “ | First of all, religious belief is still very powerful and widespread, and there is nothing inevitable about its decline. In fact, the proportion of people who say they believe in God actually ticked modestly upward, from 86 percent to 89 percent, since Gallup last asked the question in 2014.[6] | ” |
In June 2012, the UK based Dorset Humanists wrote:
| “ | There’s been a forceful backlash against the ‘new atheism’ of writers like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, inspiring a new wave of Christian apologists. This group includes: Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology at King’s College London, Keith Ward, former Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.
Many atheists make the mistake of assuming religion is wholly irrational, relying on faith alone but, in a series of interviews recorded for DVD, the apologetics heavyweights from the list above demonstrate their ability to challenge us with reasoned arguments.[7] |
” |
The Christian apologetics organizations Ratio Christi and Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology formed after the launch of the New Atheism movement and before the decline of the New Atheism movement. See: Christian apologetics response to the New Atheist movement
The atheist Sam Harris quipped about William Lane Craig that he was "The one Christian apologist who seems to have put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists".[8][9]
The atheist Luke Muehlhauser wrote:
| “ | As far as I can tell, he has won nearly all his debates with atheists. When debating him, atheists have consistently failed to put forward solid arguments, and consistently failed to point out the flaws in Craig’s arguments...
This is especially embarrassing for atheists because Craig’s arguments and debates are easily available, and he uses the same arguments all the time. So it should be easy for atheists to prepare for a debate with Craig.[10] |
” |
Death by a thousand cuts
The famous Lincoln–Douglas debates were a series of 7 debates and each debate lasted 3 hours. The debates were between Abraham Lincoln and Stephan A. Douglas and mostly focused on the issue of slavery.
Given the attention span of today's public, after the launch of the now defunct New Atheism movement, which had some momentum for about 7 years until it imploded, there never was an extended decisive ideological battle between Christians and atheists. Instead, there were a stream of books, articles, debates, lectures, sermons, podcasts, movies, etc. There was nothing approaching something similar to the Lincoln–Douglas debates. As a result, there was a series of Christian delaying actions which helped weaken the atheist movement (see: Decline of the atheist movement). Now, numerous atheists have declared that the "atheist movement is dead" or that it is dying.[12]
In 1990, the atheist philosopher Michael Martin indicated there was a general absence of an atheistic response to contemporary work in the philosophy of religion and in jest he indicated that it was his "cross to bear" to respond to theistic arguments.[13] Yet, in 1994, Michael Martin was criticized for his eleventh hour cancellation of his debate with Greg Bahnsen (see: Greg Bahnsen and debate and Bahnson-Martin debate press release).[14]
Atheists have generally done very poorly in debates and recently developed a reputation for dodging debates (see: Atheism debates and Atheism and cowardice).
Groups/organizations which unsuccessfully meet challenges and/or face future challenges which they believe they cannot successfully overcome, often: are dispirited; experience infighting; have less respect for each other; distance themselves from one another; have members who are less likely to take the initiative; become pessimistic and are also far less effective.[15] See: Morale of the atheist movement
At the 2018 American Atheists National Convention, the ex-president of the American Atheists organization David Silverman declared:
| “ | It is a hard time to be an atheist activist. This has affected us. And it has affected our community...
...it has really affected us. We are suffering a level of defeatism that I have never seen before... We feel the loss. And we feel like we have lost. We feel like we lost the election... We see this cascade of attack coming down at us over and over from all different directions and we feel like it's over. I have heard so many times it makes me sick. It makes me sad. It feels like we lost. The apathy that follows. It doesn't matter. We can't win anyways. It's useless to fight. This apathy is infecting us. It's hurting us. And people are reacting to each other now. And so that is causing a division. Lots and lots of division in our movement. Hard, bad division... And that has resulted in a splintering and factioning of the movement that I have never seen before and none of us have. In other words, we're in a bad situation and it's getting worse.[16] |
” |
From a global perspective, the world's percentage of atheists has been shrinking and many secular countries have experienced a significant amount of immigration from the citizens of religious countries (see: Desecularization and Global atheism statistics).
On December 23, 2012, Professor Eric Kaufmann who teaches at Birbeck College, University of London and whose academic research specialty is how demographic changes affect religion/irreligion and politics, wrote:
| “ | I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious.
On the other hand, the secular West and East Asia has very low fertility and a rapidly aging population... In the coming decades, the developed world's demand for workers to pay its pensions and work in its service sector will soar alongside the booming supply of young people in the third world. Ergo, we can expect significant immigration to the secular West which will import religious revival on the back of ethnic change. In addition, those with religious beliefs tend to have higher birth rates than the secular population, with fundamentalists having far larger families. The epicentre of these trends will be in immigration gateway cities like New York (a third white), Amsterdam (half Dutch), Los Angeles (28% white), and London, 45% white British. [18] |
” |
Various schisms occurring within the atheist movement and widespread infighting, has had an adverse effect on various atheist organizations (See: Atheist factions). Divisions within the atheist movement have caused a marked decline in the movement (see: Decline of the atheist movement). For example, atheist organizations have experienced large drops in donations to their organizations (see: Atheist organizations and fundraising).
Most atheists are apathetic when it comes to sharing atheism with others - especially when compared to evangelistic religions such as Christianity (see: Atheism and apathy).
Eric Kaufmann, an agnostic professor whose academic research specialty is how demographic changes affect religion/irreligion and politics, wrote in 2010:
| “ | Worldwide, the march of religion can probably only be reversed by a renewed, self-aware secularism. Today, it appears exhausted and lacking in confidence... Secularism's greatest triumphs owe less to science than to popular social movements like nationalism, socialism and 1960s anarchist-liberalism. Ironically, secularism's demographic deficit means that it will probably only succeed in the twenty-first century if it can create a secular form of 'religious' enthusiasm.[19] | ” |
In March 2015, the atheist philosopher John Gray in an article at The Guardian titled What scares the new atheists reported: "Today, it’s clear that no grand march is under way...The resurgence of religion is a worldwide development...For secular thinkers, the continuing vitality of religion calls into question the belief that history underpins their values."[20]
In 2018, the atheist PZ Myers quotes an atheist activist who declares: "It’s quite depressing that movement Atheism has turned into such a joke. I valued it so much once."[21] Furthermore, Myers says the atheist movement is in "shambles" and this is "quite depressing" for him.[21] Myers also wrote: "... the optimism is fading and is being consumed by a new anger at the incompetence and betrayal of the self-appointed atheist leadership."[22] See also: Atheism and leadership
YouTube atheist Thunderfoot said about the atheist movement after the Reason Rally 2016 had a very low turnout:
| “ | I'm not sure there is anything in this movement worth saving. Hitchens is dead. Dawkins simply doesn't have the energy for this sort of thing anymore. Harris went his own way. And Dennett just kind of blended into the background. So what do you think when the largest gathering of the nonreligious in history pulls in... I don't know. Maybe 2,000 people. Is there anything worth saving?[23] | ” |
In 2011, atheist Jacques Berlinerblau declared: "The Golden Age of Secularism has passed."[24]
In recent times, the number of people attending atheist conferences has grown smaller.[25][26][27] Atheist David Smalley wrote: "And we wonder why we’re losing elections, losing funding, and our conferences are getting smaller."[26]
References
- ↑ Delaying Action
- ↑ Secularism, Fundamentalism or Catholicism? The Religious Composition of the United States to 2043, Journal for the Sientific Study of Religion, vol. 49, no. 2 (June) 2010, Vegard Skirbekk and Anne Goujon,
- ↑ Secularism, Fundamentalism or Catholicism? The Religious Composition of the United States to 2043, Journal for the Sientific Study of Religion, vol. 49, no. 2 (June) 2010, Vegard Skirbekk and Anne Goujon,
- ↑ Hout, Michael; Smith, Tom (March 2015). "Fewer Americans Affiliate with Organized Religions, Belief and Practice Unchanged: Key Findings from the 2014 General Social Survey" (PDF). General Social Survey. NORC
- ↑ Hout, Michael; Smith, Tom (March 2015). "Fewer Americans Affiliate with Organized Religions, Belief and Practice Unchanged: Key Findings from the 2014 General Social Survey" (PDF). General Social Survey. NORC
- ↑ Atheism is Rising, But…, American Interest
- ↑ Philosophy, Science and the God Debate
- ↑ William Lane Craig Puts the Fear of God in Atheists, video clip of the William Lane Craig vs. Sam Harris debate
- ↑ The God Debate II: Harris vs. Craig, University of Notre Dame YouTube channel
- ↑ William Lane Craig’s Debates (Reviews)
- ↑ Berlinerblau, Jacques (February 4, 2011). "Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast". The Chronicle of Higher Education/Brainstorm blog. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑
- The “Atheism Movement:” Dead or Alive?, Freethought Blogs
- Atheist activist Seth Andrews keeps seeing reports on social media and the media that the atheist movement is dying, Examining Atheism
- Atheist Aron Ra indicates the atheist movement is dead. Now that that Aron Ra has surrendered...., Examining Atheism
- The Day the Atheist Movement Died by Jack Vance at Atheist Revolution
- Jennifer McCreight on Twitter about the Elevatorgate scandal destroying the atheist movement, Jen McCreight, Twitter
- ↑ Open Questions: Diverse Thinkers Discuss God, Religion, and Faith by Luís F. Rodrigues, page 201
- ↑ Bahsen at the Stein debate by John Frame
- ↑ Confidence in teams and organisations, Center For Confidence and well-being]
- ↑ David Silverman - How the Mighty Get Back Up
- ↑
- Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
- Eric Kaufmann: Shall The Religious Inherit The Earth?
- Eric Kaufmann's Atheist Demographic series
- Eric Kaufmann: Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- ↑ 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious, Tuesday, April 30, 2013
- ↑ Shall the religious inherit the earth? - Eric Kaufmann
- ↑ What scares the new atheists by John Gray, The Guardian, March 3, 2016
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Atheist Activists Lament a Movement in “Shambles” by David Klinghoffer
- ↑ The Atheist Disillusionment by PZ Myers, September 27, 2014
- ↑ Even atheists bash 'Reason Rally'
- ↑ Berlinerblau, Jacques (February 4, 2011). "Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast". The Chronicle of Higher Education/Brainstorm blog. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Whoever I Don’t Like Is Ruining the Atheist Movement by Jeremiah Traeger
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 Reasonably Controversial: How the Regressive Left Is Killing the Atheist Movement by David Smalley
- ↑ #ReasonRally Crash n burn. Thanks SJWs! by Thunderf00t
