Where the Rubber Hits the Road

'What has happened to contemporary atheism? Until a few years ago, atheism resided in a pragmatic space of irreligiousness and indifference, assisted by the modern turn of events which rendered philosophical discourse on the existence of God dogmatically impossible by definition. Today, we are witnessing a double turn. The first involves a return to theoretical atheism, assisted by references to scientific discourse. After the classic seasons of suspect teachers (Marx, Nietzsche, Freud), today it is the turn of neo-darwinism and neuroscience to furnish arguments for the belief that God does not exist. A God whom some authors prefer to write with a lowercase “g”. The second and more interesting change perhaps, is atheism as a new form of morality. In this case too, historical antecedents can be cited. In the modern age, there is Pascal’s debate with erudite libertinism or Sartre’s celebrated pamphlet on atheism as humanism. The new apologetics of atheism privileges the reference to ...