Some Reflections on the New Atheists

They speak of matters that only they and their followers perceive.
They speak of matters both vast and infinite, and intimate and infinitesimal; but they assert that these matters directly affect our lives and our futures, as individuals and as a species.
They describe these matters in a highly technical language known well only to a small specialist caste.
They establish institutions to sustain their studies, educate their followers, and promulgate their teachings.
They gather to share their minutiae and publish their works.
They do their best to share their ideas with the public, but have difficulty getting across anything but the broadest ideas, which almost always get distorted.
Some of them are determined, and even militant, about defending the truth of their understanding of the nature of things against other understandings.

Who might I be talking about? How about, for example, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking? I’m talking about the material determinists preaching (yes, preaching) under the heading of the “new atheists.”

Lets’ try this again.

They speak of matters that only they and their followers perceive.

• Have you ever actually seen a quark, much less been able to tell which is top or bottom, which is charm or strange?

They speak of matters both vast and infinite, and intimate and infinitesimal; but they assert that these matters directly affect our lives and our futures, as individuals and as a species.

• For example, quantum mechanics and astrophysics; or genes and ecosystems.

They describe these matters in a highly technical language known well only to a small specialist caste.

• Specifically, higher mathematics. It is the language – indeed, for much of their work the only language – in which these concepts can be described with precision.

They establish institutions to sustain their studies, educate their followers, and promulgate their teachings.

• How about MIT or Cal Poly; or, for that matter, the departments of Physics, Astronomy, or Engineering of any major university.

They gather to share their minutiae and publish their works.

• Well, there’s the American Nuclear Society, or the American Physical Society.

They do their best to share their ideas with the public, but have difficulty getting across anything but the broadest ideas, which almost always get distorted.

• Think about reports of scientific discoveries in the public press, especially in the areas of nuclear research or medicine.

Some of them are determined, and even militant, about defending the truth of their understanding of the nature of things against other understandings.

• Again, think of Richard Dawkins, or Victor Stenger.

They speak with certainty, or at least with conviction, of matters which are based in fact on assumptions.

• This takes a bit more reflection, but it’s clear. Take, for example, the pursuit of a Grand Unified Field Theory. The idea has long prevailed that there must be one theory (in fact, one equation) that will account for electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and weak forces within the atom; and indeed that the theory must be elegantly simple. That idea is an assumption. It can be argued for and against, but it’s an article of faith.
• Or, again, take quarks. No one has seen one. They are predicted in the math, and in the results of high energy physics experiments at CERN and elsewhere spots and lines show up in the film that seem to match the math; but the math is part of a specific model, a mathematical construct. Suppose one of the premises of the model is wrong.

Now, let me first acknowledge that this also applies to religion, right down the line. In fact the language of theology, at least of academic theology, is awfully technical and obscure. That’s part of the reason that in fact stories of religion in the public press are so dependably partial.

Second, I’m happy to acknowledge that the scientific community is in fact quite diverse. I have observed before that I grew up surrounded by folks with PhD’s in the hard sciences, including my father, who were also active in faith communities. Folks like Dawkins and Stenger are extremists to the point of becoming stereotypes, and not really representative. (And I’ll admit I’m not sure about Hawking and Christopher Hitchins. Hawking spoke of God as “unnecessary,” but I haven’t heard much anti-religious commentary from him. Hitchins is a journalist and not a scientist per se; and while he’s clear on his position, lately he’s been much less, well, obnoxious in his rhetoric. And I respect his recent statements that his diagnosis of cancer will not change his beliefs.)

But, only the extremists in the religious traditions deny that these are matters of faith, and not provable. By the same token, its the extremists among the material determinists who deny their underlying assumptions and feel they must be militant about the exclusive reality of their world view.

This has gotten a lot of ink and pixels lately, including among some of my colleagues. To some extent, I think that’s because, whether we realize it or not, they are behaving just like us. What I think is interesting and ironic is realize that they are behaving just like us; and they’re absolutely blind to it.