Sometimes Being a Patriot Trumps Being a Good Atheist

Yglesias on Drum makes a good point about the new crew of evangelizing atheists:

"There have long been atheists in the West, especially among the intellentsia, but lately there seem to be an awful lot of what you might call evangelizing atheists who want to publish books about how awful religion is. Kevin names Richard Dawkins, Victor Stenger, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens and I was also add Daniel Dennett into the mix. What's going on?


"It seems especially odd to me because it's so contrary to the spirit of non-theism to go around writing books like this. The whole strength of the non-theistic intellectual enterprise over the years has simply been to go about our business without talking about God. Talk about the origins of the universe. Talk about human history. Talk about ethics and politics. Talk about the nature of truth. Talk about the origin of species. And do it without talking about God. That's atheism -- just doing the intellectual work of explaining and debating things without reference to the supernatural -- not devising ever-more-intricate proofs that there is no God."

But what I think MY misses is how burgeoning wave of religious radicals have profoundly changed the landscape of America and the world. Now I don't want to sound too much like Sully, but the radical Muslim has become a threat (maybe not the extreme threat Bush et al, would like you to believe) to individual liberty, while the fundamentalist Christian has helped pave the road for the fascists, er I mean the neo-conservatives to get into power. While I agree the "spirit of non-theism" has been anti-proselytizing, it has become more important to the atheist movement to talk about the pitfalls and negatives of institutionalized religion to defend individualism against the threat of religious totalitarianism. Then again, maybe they're just out to sell books.