Religion in the postmodern West and the challenges of the new atheism

Abstract

Religious truths from universal norms become a matter of individual taste. The idea of religion as a useful lie emerges, placing a human religious life in the sphere of socially lucrative. Violence which was inspired by a fanatical interpretation of religion at the beginning of the 21st century, has encouraged the publication of many works with pronounced atheistic ideas. The term "new atheism" was first mentioned in 2006 in the American magazine "Wired". The topic of the magazine was an increasingly large number of published books promoting anti-religious views, especially the works of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens Sam Harris and Dennett Daniel. Since then, the term "new atheism" has become more widely used, and it has been included by other contemporary thinkers. The propagandists of these ideas are very active on social networks, blogs and podcast programs. The titles of their best-selling books sound like popular slogans: God is not Great; Breaking the Spell; The End of Faith; Atheist manifesto... Reacting to this ideas, a group of famous thinkers appeared, publicly arguing with new atheists.