The New Atheist and the Social Justice Movement

New Atheists. “These are attitudes masquerading as ideas, emotional commitments disguised as intellectual honesty”.[1]

What is the source of the new atheist movement?  The new atheist movement is an offshoot of the social justice movement which came to the forefront in America after 911.  However, its roots can be traced back to a number of intellectual and political influences.  These influences include social Marxism, postmodernism and critical theory all of which were planted in the United States after World War II by European scholars who migrated here after the war.  A number of movements can be traced to these roots, e.g. the social justice movement, the feminist movement, the gay rights movement and the libertarian[2] movement and yes, the new atheist movement, all of which can be traced to the Frankfurt school in Germany and to what is now called social Marxism.  The thing that all these movements have in common is their hatred of power and authority or should I say someone else’s power and authority.[3]

Postmodernism and critical thinking teach that all power structures are basically oppressive and therefore, need to be destroyed.  These power structures include the family, religion, especially Christianity and government.  Of course, they fail to see that the university itself is a power source linking them to the very thing they criticize.  They also fail to consider that these power structures they are so critical of were part of the systems which allowed and fostered the development of civilization and without these structures, it is doubtful that humankind would have advanced as far as it has.  The parasitical college professors who came up with postmodernism and critical thinking, would not have had the leisure time to develop their theories if it was not for the power structures that they are now condemning.

Postmodernism and modernism both share two basic errors that center in their view of human nature.  One is that human nature is a black slate and the second is that man is basically good.  The blank slate people believe that there is no basic operating system in the human mind.  Therefore, humans are totally controlled by their environment.  The keyword is totally.  In other words, according to this view humanity has no nature.  Everything is socially created by one’s culture and the institutions of that culture[4].  Free will is an allusion and all institutions are created to maintain the power of the ruling class.  Therefore, all institutions are oppressive.

Of course, the glaring question is, how can you have an inherently good nature if you don’t have an operating system that directs your nature into natural goodness?

At this point, we begin to see a divide between modernism and postmodernism.  For the postmodern, man is a blank slate and everything is socially created, if so, then the concept of good and evil can only be a social construct for the benefit of the oppressors.  Of course, religion and Government are the institutions used to foster this construct using the tools of morality and law.  The logic of this is that government and religion being forms of oppression must be destroyed.  This clearly seems to be the case with Carl Marx.  Marx believed that when communism reached its completion or perfection, there would be no need for religion or government to control the people.  Of course, all of this was based on the dubious doctrine of progressive evolution and Nietzsche’s idea that the will to power is the chief motivating force in human beings.  The truth is that human beings are motivated by numerous attitudes and emotions.

It is here that we begin to see the beginning of the social justice movement that in turn gave birth to the new atheist movement.  Both movements are grounded in Marxism and its attacks on religion.  The early Marxists attempt to use the state to destroy religion failed.  So, the new Marxists are attempting to use atheism to create the brave new world of Marxism.  If the new atheists destroy religion, there is no place for atheism to go other than complete communism.  It was atheism that gave rise to Marxism and communism, not the other way around.

One of the seeds of postmodernism is the false belief of modernism, which is that man is basically good and if left alone will evolve into an angelic being,  who can live by pure reason.  In this rational, you can hear the whisper of postmodernism and the noble savage who symbolizes humanity’s innate goodness, which is one of the false narratives and myths of modernism.

Most thoughtful people have come to realize that western civilization is under attack from many sides.  Its institutions are being assaulted by feminists, socialists, Marxists, globalists, the new atheist movement and the Libertarian movement.  All of these leftist movements have a number of things in common.  They are deconstructionists that want to destroy what now exists so it can be replaced with something new.  In this, they want to destroy or change the institution of family, religion and government.  In contrast, you have the conservative movement that believes that these institutions are a part of the natural order and should be maintained.  The conservative movement does not believe these institutions are perfect, and if possible, they should be improved.  However, they do not believe that they can be perfected because human nature at its base level cannot perfect anything.

The bottom line is that the new atheist movement is more of a social movement that has created attitudes and emotions that are the driving force of the movement.  This, of course, is the very opposite of what the new atheists believe about themselves.  They fancy themselves as intellectual and progressive in their social views when, in reality, they are nothing more than the products of cultural and intellectual brainwashing.  They have deified the attitude and emotions of rebellion similar to that of the French Revolution.  They are angry at the human condition because it is a threat to their comfort, ease and pleasure.  They are the adult version of the spoiled child and they feel like victims of a meaningless life.

[1] Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies Hart, David Bentley

[2] The libertarian movement has many different degrees. Here I am talking about the far left that hides in their ranks.

[3] Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault by Stephen Hicks

[4] This includes gender.