New Atheism Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wired

"Wired" magazine first used the term in 2006 to describe best-selling atheistic authors of the time. The term is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, but it has entered common usage in the media and among many atheists (take, for instance, the newatheist.org website).

It is used as a convenient label for those modern atheists who take an evangelical approach to atheism, promoting their views vocally, publically, and aggressively in an attempt to convert others to the same way of thinking.

Answer: False

The New Atheists publicly voice their lack of respect for religion. In his article "The Rise of the New Atheists," Simon Hopper of CNN describes New Atheists as sharing the belief that religion should "not simply be tolerated" but "criticized and exposed" wherever its influence can be felt.

The New Atheist website (newatheist.org) asserts that "tolerance of pervasive myth and superstition in modern society is not a virtue." In 2009, NPR reported on "Blasphemy Day," in which New Atheists celebrated their right to denigrate religion and noted that the new approach has created a "schism" among those atheists who agree with the aggressive stance of New Atheists and those who would urge greater respect and tolerance.

Answer: Sam Harris

"The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" was published in 2004. In 2006, Sam Harris followed up with "Letter to a Christian Nation," which contained severe criticism of the Christian faith.

Answer: True

In his essay "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God," Dawkins wrote, "The presence of a creative deity in the universe is clearly a scientific hypothesis. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more momentous hypothesis in all of science." Nevertheless, Dawkins wrote, "no evidence for God's existence has yet appeared."

Answer: Religion

In 2007, Hitchens published "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." Hitches grew up in the U.K. but became a United States citizen in 2007.

Answer: God: The Failed Hypothesis

The subtitle of Stenger's book is "How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist." "Letter to a Christian Nation" was written by Sam Harris, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, and "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens.

Answer: Emotional

Most New Atheists claim to use primarily scientific methods to discredit religion, but they also rely heavily on philosophical, logical, and historical methods as well. One prominent New Atheist, Daniel C. Dennett, is a professional philosopher. The logical method is employed by Victor Stenger in his book "God: The Failed Hypothesis." Most New Atheists would claim to eschew emotion-based arguments.

Answer: Daniel C. Dennett

Published in 2006, "Breaking the Spell" argues that the future of the phenomenon of religion can be predicted through scientific analysis. "The Spell" Dennett wishes to see broken is the idea that science cannot be used to study religion.

Answer: New

This quote is taken from his 2010 column "Why I Don't Believe in New Atheism." Flynn argued that the arguments of the so-called "New Atheists" were all old hack that had simply been repackaged, published, and sold to a larger audience.

Answer: Michael Medved

All of the others have also debated Christopher Hitchens at one time. The Christian Dinesh D'Souza debated him on Michael Medved's Seattle-based radio talk show. The Medved-Hitchens debate was two hours with commercial interruptions.

Answer: Christopher Hitchens

Hitchens began as a commentator for left-wing publications but later shifted to supporting more traditionally conservative positions. He wrote numerous essays in support of the Iraq war and has critiqued the Clintons repeatedly in his columns.

Answer: The End of Reason

Ravi Zacharias was born into a high-caste Hindu family and lived most of his early life as a practical atheist. In "The End of Reason," he specifically critiques the books of Sam Harris point by point.

Answer: Fashionable

In "Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies," David Bentley Hart primarily focuses on countering the New Atheists' version of history by "correcting" many anti-religious "myths" about history, such as the idea that Christian mobs destroyed the library of Alexandria.

His book is primarily a response to the historical argument of atheists that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is the cause of most historical evils. Hart argues that Christianity, rather than making the world worse, vastly improved it.

Answer: The Four Horsemen

If you visit richarddawkins.net, for example, you'll see the prominent use of the descriptor "The Four Horsemen"; it's featured on the others' sites as well. The term is a tongue-in-cheek play on the "four horsemen of the apocalypse" who are harbingers of the Last Judgment in the Book of Revelation.

Answer: Victor J. Stenger

In addition to publishing books on atheism, including "The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason," Stenger has also written books on quantum mechanics, physics, philosophy, and cosmology.