Thursday, August 20, 2015

Religion of New Atheism

The holy bible of New Atheism religion

I think, the New Atheism is a religion, very seriously. Here are the elements of the ideological construction I call New Atheism religion. These elements are common in all religions so far as we know. My very brief analysis here is sociological./1/

Its holy book:
The God Delusion, written by Prof. Richard Dawkins; 

Its first holy epistle:
Letter to A Christian Nation, written by Sam Harris;


Its earlier prophets:
Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, late Christopher Eric Hitchens, Daniel Dennett;


Its core creeds:
“Atheism makes no claims. It is a lack of belief and nothing more.”

“The transcendent dimensions do not exist.” 

Its delusion:
Atheism is scientific; 

Atheism is the only savior of the world currently being fooled and conned by religions;

Its community:
The defenders of the New Atheism worldwide interconnected by the Internet and various social media;


Its cultic rituals:
Daily attacking religions and believers cruelly, barbarically, aggressively, abrasively, cathartically, by using verbal and symbolic violence;


Its gods:
Superhuman intelligent beings in space believed by Prof. Richard Dawkins to exist that created human beings through their advanced genetic engineering long, long ago./2/


So, you could be convinced now that the New Atheism is a religion too. 

Jakarta, 20 August 2015
Ioanes Rakhmat 

Notes

/1/ Sociologists in general consider religions as social institutions founded and developed on several essential or basic elements, namely, canon, code, creed, and cult. Some add other elements such as community, courses of action, and commitment. In addition to these essential elements, there are many other non-essential elements, too many to mention one by one.

/2/ Richard Dawkins expresses his belief in extraterrestrial superhuman intelligent beings as the creators of human beings here https://youtu.be/BoncJBrrdQ8.

The most crucial statement of Dawkins is this: “Well, it could come about in the following way. It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved, probably by some kind of Darwinian means, probably to a very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Now, um, now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer.”

If Dawkins denies this statement or wishes to revise or even discard it, I suggest him to make a scientific clarification recorded in a video and then disseminate it through the Internet.