The politics of new atheism: An examination of the aims, impact and validity of the movement within a British context.

As Daniel Dennett wrote in his work 'Breaking the Spell' when talking about religion, somehow the stakes always seem to be higher. Perhaps this is why debates surrounding religion, especially when they enter the public arena, have a tendency to become polemical. One of the unfortunate traits of polemics is that they often succeed in generating more heat than light. Since the emergence of New Atheism there has been very little academic analysis of the movement, certainly there is very little in the form of engagement from either a political or cultural standpoint. And if one takes the view that New Atheism is inherently political (and that's what makes it new) then this becomes a very obvious gap to fill. Hence I chose to undertake this research project under the auspices of a political studies department instead of the perhaps more obvious home of a religious studies department. In the 6 years since I began this research project. New Atheism has come and gone from the bestsellers lists in WH Smiths and Waterstones, making this the ideal time to make a full analysis of the movement and its impact. New Atheism has taken a subject previously believed to be the province of the 'academic' section in bookshops and placed it into the bestseller lists. Hitherto rather dry, dusty looking academic eccentrics like Dennett and Richard Dawkins have become television and internet celebrities. New Atheism is political in its aims and has had a very visible cultural impact; this is why a political and cultural studies thesis should examine it. Although on the surface there would seem little need to add another book-length project to the bulging book shelves on the resurgence of the 'God debate', when one reads most of them, there is very little impartiality. Contributors such as Alister McGrath and John Lennox do not stand outside New Atheism, they 'engage' with New Atheism on a very combative level, making them part of the movement. This then is the very essence of the 'more heat than light' approach. Theologians have engaged with and indeed criticised the atheism in New Atheism. However this is tantamount to reviewing a book when you've only read the prologue (a phrase I shall come back to later). It is for political scientists and cultural historians to engage and analyse the impact of this movement, for it seeks to politicise and influence our minds and our culture; and there has been very little such engagement, certainly on this scale so far, and particularly in relation to Britain. And this brings me onto the second aim of this research project. I did not simply want to look at New Atheism in and of itself; to do so would make this thesis little more than an elaborate literature review. There is urgency in New Atheism, an insistence that there are problems at the heart of our society, problems which if not dealt with promptly will have negative impacts for all of us. I wanted to find out if those claims were true in Britain. New Atheism is not a British movement. It's most famous exponent is from Britain but there is very little in New Atheism which claims to be exclusive to any geographical region. New Atheism is rarely specific in geography when highlighting the problems of religion, Britain seldom features centre stage. Is this because the problems are simply not relevant here, or is it that Britain isn't quite as 'obvious' a target as the Bible Belt of America or the Middle East? Is it true, as some critics of the movement affirm, that New Atheism only picks easy targets like Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush and uses them to stereotype the rest? This project therefore seeks to answer three questions; 1: What is New Atheism and precisely what impact has it had in Britain? 2: To what extent do its claims about the pernicious influence of religion in public life, reflect religion in Britain ? How? (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)