The New Atheists

One of the best pieces I’ve seen on the new atheists is a blog post at Fox News. Check it out. Excerpts:

The anti-God movement involves vacuuming the world of the outrageous idea — yes, that slavish, medieval, intolerant, moralistic and paternalistic concept — that there may be more to reality than what science can explain. . . .Their creed is two-pronged: 1) all of reality, including every aspect of the human person, is reducible to natural, evolutionary explanations 2) people who disagree with this core belief are a threat to human progress and must be silenced.

The heroes of this movement are not real atheists because science is their God. They place blind faith in its ability to resolve every one of mankind’s quandaries. When confronted with realities that seem to fall outside of science’s grasp — like how to explain free will or how and when matter got here in the first place — ironically, the leaders of this movement become very unscientific. They claim these questions are non-questions because they can’t be answered by the only valid source of truth — Science with a capital “S.”

__________

Brokeback Bathroom: Director John Waters wants to make a film about the Larry Craig incident. “I hear that airport is becoming a big tourist attraction. I want to make a movie about it. ‘The Last Stall on the Left.’” I think directors are like authors: Everything seems like it could make good script. It’s even easier with today’s gay culture. Just in the past few years: “Brokeback NBA: The Locker Room Anguish of John Ameche,” “Brokeback Clergy: The Story of Ted Haggard: Minister to Gay Whoring and Back Again in Four Months,” and “Brokeback NFL: Not Just a Green Bay Packer, the Life of Esera Tuaolo.”
__________

Just a few inches behind the gay culture’s ability to provide good stories: The divorce culture. The Oregon Supreme Court hears oral arguments Tuesday in the case of a father who wants his 12-year-old son to be circumcised. His ex-wife — the boy’s mother — is fighting the request. The father converted to Judaism. (Whenever I hear about a convert to Judaism, I think of Sammy Davis Jr. on All in the Family. Archie: “Sammy, I don’t hold your color against you. You couldn’t help it. But why’d you go and turn Jew?” (rough quote)
__________

I have a bookmark that I call “Articles to Read at Some Point.” Any lengthy essay by Joseph Epstein, Theodore Dalrymple, and Mark Steyn makes it automatically. This one went in this morning: Mark Steyn: Rock music’s oppressive rule over society.

(In this regard, if anyone sees any essays by those three writers, please let me know, either via email or in the comments section of any post. I read all comments.)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 6:44 am . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “The New Atheists”

1. Tim J. Says:
   November 7th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

   The Mark Steyn article was excellent. Thank’ee.

2. Bill White Says:
   November 7th, 2007 at 1:29 pm

   Hi Eric –

   Michael Gilliland is big on Theodore Dalrymple. Here’s a collection of recent essays:
   http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2007/11/dalrymple-watch.html

   I’ve started sections at my blog devoted to Messrs Dalrymple and Steyn:
   http://members.wolfram.com/billw/summa/tags/TheodoreDalrymple
   http://members.wolfram.com/billw/summa/tags/MarkSteyn

   I’ll need to google Mr Epstein.

   Cheers -

   bw

3. Eric Says:
   November 7th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

   Re: Dalrymple.

   Has there been any speculation about his identity? He has made it clear that “Theodore Dalrymple” is a pen name. I know he’s a doctor that spent time in Africa (and maybe other third-world lands), but other than that, does anybody know anything about him or who he really is?

4. Bill White Says:
   November 7th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

   here you go:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Dalrymple

   It’s wikipedia

   Cheers -

   bw

5. Bill White Says:
   November 9th, 2007 at 8:14 am

   Dalrymple has a new essay in the Nov 07 New English Review – see http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/12175/sec_id/12175 or my Dalrymple page at http://members.wolfram.com/billw/summa/tags/TheodoreDalrymple

   Cheers -

   bw

6. Ganry93 Says:
   October 13th, 2009 at 4:20 am

   She has lots more good recipes in her workout journal. ,

7. OMHEHJaXyULFdWwLb Says:
   November 16th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

   doors.txt;1;2

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