Fundamentalist Atheism and its Intellectual Failures

Abstract

A new breed of atheism has emerged which seeks to obliterate religion: fundamentalist atheism. Differing from more mainstream atheism, fundamentalist atheism has been fueled by a rise in the power of the Religious Right in the United States, codified with the election of George Bush and his subsequent support for various government sponsored religious initiatives and the proliferation of violent organizations which often identify with a particular religious sect. In addition to seeking to bolster secularism, particularly principles of separation of church and state, appreciation of scientific truth, and respect for fundamental human rights, fundamentalist atheists have grown to perceive religion as a fundamental threat to civilization. In this paper I document fundamentalist atheism's salient characteristics, specifically its tendency to narrowly define and stereotype religion in order to bolster its claim that religion is civilization's greatest threat. I make the argument that, because its apocalyptical view of religion is based on faulty reasoning, fundamentalist atheism, although a response to fundamentalist religion, constitutes a dangerous intellectual failure within the ranks of atheism. Indeed, fundamentalist atheism results in an illogically-founded fanaticism that pits itself against pluralism and tolerance.