Astral Codex Ten

New Atheism

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New Atheism

Article

New Atheism is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 10, 2021 and January 16, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as “The term “New Atheism”, while not officially restricted to the Internet, tries to capture a sense that a more strident grassroots atheist movement formed”; “the New Atheists had been”; “as a direct analogy to New Atheism”. It most often appears alongside Christians, Hillary Clinton, Internet.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: May 10, 2021
  • Last seen: January 16, 2026

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

The Rise And Fall Of Online Culture Wars
May 10, 2021 · Original source
Most of the participants were geeks. This was before social justice went mainstream, and almost by definition people who are really into non-mainstream things are geeks. Social media hadn't really come into its own yet, so a lot of the discussion happened on blogs, which were mostly read by geeks. And a lot of feminists got their start in the New Atheist movement - so, definitely geeks.
[Followup to: New Atheism: The Godlessness That Failed]
Inline links: New Atheism: The Godlessness That Failed
II. New Atheism, New Feminism, New Anti-Racism
The Dilbert Afterlife
January 16, 2026 · Original source
And the Nineties (God’s Debris was published in 2001) were a special time. The decade began with the peak of Wicca and neopaganism. Contra current ideological fault lines, where these tendencies bring up images of Etsy witches, they previously dominated nerd circles, including male nerds, techie nerds, and right-wing nerds (did you know Eric S. Raymond is neopagan?) By decade’s end, the cleverest (ie most annoying) nerds were switching to New Atheism; throughout, smaller groups were exploring Discordianism, chaos magick, and the Subgenius. The common thread was that Christianity had lost its hegemonic status, part of being a clever nerd was patting yourself on the back for having seen through it, but exactly what would replace it was still uncertain, and there was still enough piety in the water supply that people were uncomfortable forgetting about religion entirely. You either had to make a very conscious, marked choice to stop believing (New Atheism), or try your hand at the task of inventing some kind of softer middle ground (neopaganism, Eastern religion, various cults, whatever this book was supposed to be).
Inline links: Eric S. Raymond is neopagan