With playful enthusiasm, Garrison takes on the so-called New Atheists. Who are the New Atheists? The "New Atheists aren't resurrecting the old atheist argument that belief in God is wrong. Rather, they're advocating that belief in God is dangerous and destructive" (18). The New Atheists have divided the world into two camps: "enlightened atheists and faith-talking neanderthals" (49). Strangely enough, the New Atheists reject religious metanarratives as narrow and constrictive, but have no problem touting their scientific metanarratives as demanding universal recognition and acceptance.
They regularly use religious extremists to make religion seem violent and foolish, but never interact with serious religious thinkers like Karl Barth, Jurgen Moltmann, and Walter Brueggemann (to name just a few). She writes, "Trust me, we can both find fringe fanatics to prove the other side is nutso. So let's stop with this stereotypical silliness" (55).
The New Atheists claim to desire dialogue, but the publisher of Christopher Hitchens book, God is Not Great would not allow Becky to excerpt any material from his book. So much for reasoned debate! For the most part, the New Atheist argument consists of a good measure of trash-talking: "New Atheists have gotta do better than trash-talking their opponents" (34).
What the New Atheists desire is the complete elimination of religion. Forget tolerance. The New Atheists have no room for this. In The End of Faith, Sam Harris writes, "The very ideal of religious tolerance - born of the notion that every human being should be free to believe whatever he wants about God - is one of the principal forces driving us toward the abyss" (15). You think that's crazy. Check out another Sam Harris quote, "If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion" (65). 'Nuf said.
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