50%
Confidence
Belief overview
Valuing science
Scientific investigation is seen as a privileged means to know the empirical world.
2
Supportive
1
Contrary
0
Neutral
What it is: Many forms of atheism place high confidence in the scientific method to describe empirical reality.
How the position understands it: Observation, testing, critical review, and public correction are preferred to revealed tradition in factual questions about the natural world.
Argumentative basis and context: The valuing of science is strong in naturalist currents and in so-called new atheism.
Debates and variations: Some critics warn against turning science into a totalizing ideology; not every atheist falls into scientism.
Documentary evidence
Supportive
Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell
A proposal to study religion as a natural phenomenon.
Reference: Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell.
Content: Dennett proposes examining religion as a natural, evolutionary, and cultural phenomenon, without sacred immunity from investigation.
Use in debate: It is important for viewing religion as a human phenomenon.
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
A major new-atheist work against belief in God.
Reference: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion.
Content: Dawkins criticizes theistic arguments, discusses evolution, and argues for the improbability of God's existence.
Use in debate: It is a central source of new atheism and of popular scientific criticism of theism.
Contrary
Contemporary debates on new atheism
Academic and public critiques of the style and generalizations of new atheism.
Reference: Critical literature on new atheism.
Content: The material discusses overgeneralization, simplifications about religion, and the limits of scientism in certain contemporary atheist authors.
Use in debate: It is a source of internal and external tension within the contemporary atheist field.