I rather like the New Atheists. Not for their arguments, but their rhetoric. They have helped in at least 2 ways. 1) Prompted people to think, and 2) they had the balls to stand up and call out religion where the free press have caved in. Kudos for that. I can live with whatever other baggage comes with them. The folks who criticise them, don't want to face down the excess of the fanatics and we would be poorer if we didn't have them around challenging our thinking and pointing out some rather difficult things.
"I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence"...Doug McLeod.