Anthony Daniels, a self-proclaimed atheist and a contributing editor of City Journal and the Dietrich Weismann Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who now writes using the pseudonym “Theodore Dalrymple” takes on the “new atheist misrepresenting the essential role of religious faith in establishing Western civilization and its future survival” in an article “What the New Atheists Don’t See“.
“The thinness of the new atheism is evident in its approach to our civilization, which until recently was religious to its core. To regret religion is, in fact, to regret our civilization and its monuments, its achievements, and its legacy. And in my own view, the absence of religious faith, provided that such faith is not murderously intolerant, can have a deleterious effect upon human character and personality. If you empty the world of purpose, make it one of brute fact alone, you empty it (for many people, at any rate) of reasons for gratitude, and a sense of gratitude is necessary for both happiness and decency. For what can soon, and all too easily, replace gratitude is a sense of entitlement. Without gratitude, it is hard to appreciate, or be satisfied with, what you have: and life will become an existential shopping spree that no product satisfies.”
