Author: Ayoub Rasekh
Modern Atheism in the Balance of Critique (part 4)
Foundations of New Atheism
As mentioned earlier, New Atheism emerged after the events of the September 11 attacks and rapidly spread across Western intellectual and media circles. Modern atheists took advantage of this situation and launched extensive criticism against religions—particularly Islam—portraying it as a religion of war, killing, and violence to the global audience. In this process, they made significant efforts through publications and media campaigns, which resulted in several atheist works becoming international bestsellers.
Among the most influential books in promoting New Atheism are:
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End of Faith by Sam Harris
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The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
These works became some of the most widely circulated atheist books in the Western world and played a major role in shaping the discourse of New Atheism.
It should be noted that New Atheism is not similar to the older form of atheism associated with Communism, which mainly influenced a limited group of educated individuals connected to the Soviet Union. Rather, New Atheism represents a far broader intellectual movement. Its influence has spread among large numbers of young people—especially those with little or no religious education—causing uncertainty and transformation in their beliefs.
In many cases, governments, political institutions, and economic organizations have also supported or welcomed the spread of this form of atheism, providing various forms of assistance to its intellectual and media expansion. [1]
This newly emerging form of atheism—rapidly expanding and influencing wide segments of society—raises important questions: On what principles, foundations, and assumptions is it built? What are the most significant intellectual bases of this movement? These are the questions addressed in this discussion.
In general, the foundations of New Atheism are based on several core principles, including:
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Naturalism
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Evolution and natural selection
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The alleged conflict between science and religion
Each of these foundations requires detailed examination.
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Naturalism
Naturalism can be considered the most fundamental pillar of New Atheism and its worldview. It is the belief that everything that exists is nothing but nature, and that nothing exists beyond it. In other words, reality consists solely of nature and natural forces.
Naturalism, which is essentially a metaphysical doctrine, attempts to determine what is ultimately real and what is not. According to naturalists, the only true reality is nature itself, including the smallest structures of matter and energy and the laws governing their behavior. From this perspective, the universe is understood as a closed system of material causes and effects that is not influenced by anything beyond itself. Consequently, concepts such as “the supernatural” or “the metaphysical” are considered imaginary, and belief in them is regarded as superstition.
Within this worldview, every phenomenon—from the simplest physical movement to the most complex human emotions and the emergence of civilizations—must be explained within this closed natural system. Even human consciousness, moral awareness, and the innate search for meaning are interpreted as complex outcomes of brain activity and evolutionary processes.
Naturalism therefore insists on a unified explanation of the universe in which there is no place for supernatural intervention, divine will, or transcendent purposes. Reality is reduced to a vast material arena where every event is simply a necessary mechanical chain of cause-and-effect relationships among physical components.
This perspective is often closely linked with scientism—the belief that science is the only reliable path to knowledge. If everything that exists is nature governed by laws, then the only valid method for understanding reality would be the methods of the natural sciences, which rely on observation and experimentation.
However, the claim that “only nature exists” is itself a philosophical and metaphysical assertion. It cannot be directly tested through scientific experimentation. In other words, naturalism is not primarily a scientific conclusion but a fundamental philosophical assumption that shapes how scientific data are interpreted.
Thus, it is not science that proves the non-existence of the supernatural; rather, the assumption of the non-existence of the supernatural influences the interpretation of scientific discoveries. Many critics emphasize that reducing all reality to material and natural processes is itself a philosophical choice rather than an unavoidable scientific finding.
Major Claims of Naturalism
The following points can be considered the most important claims of naturalism as a shared worldview among atheists:
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Nothing exists except nature, which includes human beings and their cultural products; therefore, there is no God, soul, spirit, or life after death.
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Nature is self-sufficient and not created by God.
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The universe has no ultimate purpose or goal, although human beings may give their own lives meaning.
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Since God does not exist, all explanations and causes are purely natural and can only be understood through science.
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All characteristics of living beings, including human intelligence and behavior, can ultimately be explained through natural processes—often within the framework of Theory of Evolution and Darwinian evolution. [2]
These claims—especially the last two—show that naturalism is not merely a belief about the composition of the universe. Rather, it becomes a research program and explanatory ideology. According to this perspective, every phenomenon—no matter how profound or personal—must ultimately be translated into the language of physics, chemistry, biology, and evolutionary theory.
Such a reductionist outlook becomes the basis for denying the existence of the sacred, pure spirituality, and objective moral values, since these are interpreted merely as survival mechanisms or reflections of neurological processes. Thus, naturalism is not simply a description of the universe; it has deep implications for how human beings understand themselves, their place in existence, and the foundations of morality and meaning.
Types of Naturalism
Naturalism can generally be divided into three main types:
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Ontological Naturalism – the strongest form, which directly addresses the nature of existence and denies the existence of anything beyond nature.
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Methodological Naturalism – a more pragmatic stance suggesting that scientific inquiry should proceed as if only natural causes exist, without necessarily making a final philosophical judgment about ultimate reality.
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Epistemological Naturalism – the belief that the only valid and reliable knowledge is that obtained through the methods of the natural sciences. [3]
New Atheism largely relies on ontological naturalism, combined with epistemological naturalism, using them as intellectual tools to challenge the metaphysical foundations of religion and reject discussions about the transcendent.
Continues…
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References:
[1]. Afandi & Ansari, 1399: 3.
[2]. Shahbazi et al., 1395: 168.
[3]. Bikran-Behesht & Sheikh-Rezaei, 1398: 87–89.
