Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Challah
"Atheism's sudden rise" is not a result of commercial interests. Rather, the fact that these books are immensely popular (and profitable) is a result of the "sudden rise" of atheism.
Of course people like Dawkins, Hitchins and Harris are not the first to hold these views. They are, however, the modern people who are discussing them most convincingly and with the most clarity.
|
Here's what i think happened. A few eloquent atheists wrote persuasive books about why atheism is the bee's knees. Many people bought the books, including atheists and more ambivalent folk. Ambivalent folk, who quite possibly weren't formal christians anyway, read persuasive arguments endorsing atheism, become enraptured by eloquent atheist proponents, become atheists, atheism suddenly rises.
Either that or the number of atheists isn't really rising, atheism is just becoming more acceptable, so that more people are comfortable with calling themselves atheists and popular culture changes to reflect this fact.
I wouldn't doubt that christian conservatism has something to do with it, but i don't think anyone can be sure to what extent. Becoming an atheist is not necessarily a step along the way to rejecting christian conservatism.