The Social Butterfly’s Flight from Atheism
Politicized atheism drives out secularists who lack philosophical grounding
A downside of the hype around the New Atheist movement in the 2000s was that the movement attracted fair-weather friends who were more interested in politics and solidarity than ideas.
When New Atheism split along political fault lines, and progressive atheists found themselves associated with the return of severe left-wing political correctness (so-called “wokeness”), some conservative atheists decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater, disassociating themselves from atheism itself.
Richard Dawkins, a leader of the New Atheist movement, made news by calling himself a “cultural Christian.” Another one-time luminary in that movement, Ayan Hirsi Ali likewise has converted from atheism to Christianity entirely on political grounds because atheism will supposedly prove to be a weak barrier against Chinese, Russian, and Islamic authoritarianism.
Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray also align with Christianity not because they accept traditional Christian theology but because they mean to use the Christian institution to batter left-wing Western cultures.
