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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   36042 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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I always got the impression that the arguments the New Atheist made were never successfully refuted

I don't think this is true unless you mean on the level of popular discourse. As a theoretical matter, I don't think New Atheist argumentation was ever particularly respected in, say, the world of academic philosophy, which is dominated by atheists, so it's not a question of bias. And the need to respond to New Atheism prompted a re-engagement with classical philosophy among religious thinkers - see people like Edward Feser - that made their position much more theoretically defensible and less vulnerable to New Atheist arguments.

If you mean as a popular matter, then sure, I could see people thinking (incorrectly) that that whole episode sort of settled all these questions, because the sophisticated religious response to their claims turned out to be rather less of a popular phenomenon than the original claims were.

because the sophisticated religious response to their claims turned out to be rather less of a popular phenomenon than the original claims were.

Because, in large part, it couldn't be, being sophisticated philosophical claims and all.

I should amend my statement, as it's no doubt true that there were plenty of bad arguments made by atheists back in the day. I was more getting at that the core thesis they presented (something akin to "the existence of deities has not been demonstrated and therefore I don't believe") stood its ground as a viable position.

OP seems to see things differently.

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