enlighten me!

[Justtristo]

Hi, my name is Victoria and I'm a new member of your site. Now I must admit I am not entirely an atheist (I'm a bit unsure of my religious views), but I'm definitely interested in your beliefs. Now to my main point, I've come to your site with a purpose: I'm conducting a research project on new atheism.

Throughout the year in my composition class we have been reviewing works from Joseph Campbell. My task appointed to me by my instructor was to plan a research project around a topic that interested you most. So I chose the idea that atheism is becoming a more common route for the modern American.

From there I was required to do some research on what you guys are all about. From my university's religious database I mostly found attacks on the idea of new atheism, but from all these rants and raves came an article in support of new atheism. It spoke of the ideas of Dawkins, Dennett, and Harris and uniting themes between them. From there I found the real ammo for my research.

So what I'm interested in is YOUR opinion on A) religious violence B) cognitive science on religion and C) morality.

I'd be so delighted to perform some brief online interviews with a couple of you on these three topics for my research on the validity behind new atheism. Let the enlightening begin!

P.S. I'd be glad to share with you my annotated bibliography of the sources I used and a letter from the University of Central Florida solidifying this research plan.

-Victoria C.

Welcome Victoria,

May I ask suggest if you have not already done so, read the works such as The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens, God The Failed Hypothesis & The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason by Victor Stenger, Letter to a Christian Nation & The End of Faith by Sam Harris, Breaking the Spell by Dan Dennett. Reading those works will get you a good picture of what the "New Atheism" is about.

Also I would recommend to read works by atheists from previous generations such as Bertrand Russell, Karl Marx, Robert Ingersoll, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine (he would have been an atheist if he lived after Darwin's publication of the origin of the species), Antony Flew (before he became a deist before his death).

In my opinion the "new atheists" aren't much different to the atheists who criticized religion in the past. However scientific knowledge is much greater today than back then and the "new atheists" are starting to propose things like using scientific knowledge as a basis for morality. Also 9/11 has made people wake up to the dangers which religious fundamentalism poses to our civilization and it's basic values.

I hope those suggestions have helped.

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lol, I meant here in NC - they think all black clothes means you're dabbling in witchcraft.

I happened to have known a fundamentalist Christian girl (also a Young Earth Creationist to boot), who dressed in black, in the Goth style to be exact.

While I the rabid atheist baby eater, dresses in a conservative "preppy" style which would pass the dress code at Bob Jones University with flying colours.