Conference Marks Decade of 'New Atheism'

Wednesday October 15 2014

It is a decade this year since the publication of The End of Faith by Sam Harris, the book that marked the beginning of the ‘new atheism’ movement.

Marking the anniversary, a conference on The Church after a Decade of New Atheism will be held at Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh on Thursday November 27.

The conference is organised by the Rev Dr Russel Moffat, minister of Edinburgh: St Martin’s, the author of a book responding to the ‘four horsemen’ of Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett.

He said: “I thought it might be good to mark this anniversary with an evaluation of what the last decade has meant for the churches. Has it been a storm in a teacup, are there concerns not being addressed, or is the whole thing over-hyped and irrelevant? 

“There is, unfortunately, a lot of anecdotal evidence that many of our young people who came through the churches have had a difficult time at University where they often encounter militant atheists who are passionately evangelical and polemical in their hostility to all things religious. How widespread this is we don’t know, but I would like to find out. 

“Before the conference I would hope to provide an online questionnaire for Ministers and congregations, to get feedback from them on a number of key issues so we have something concrete to address within the remit of the conference - although it won’t be restricted to just that.”

Details of the conference are still being finalised, but it will include presentations, panel question and answer sessions and group discussion. Final details and a link to the questionnaire will be available through www.edinburghpresbytery.org.uk

Russel can be contacted on 0131 657 9894.

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