February 19, 2010 7:00 PM - 93 attended
New Atheism - or New Audience? A presentation by Ron Lindsay
In this provocative presentation, CFI President & CEO Ronald A. Lindsay will challenge the conventional wisdom that the so-called “new atheism” represents a radical departure from “old atheism”—or from secular humanism.
Lindsay argues that the new atheists received more attention than the old atheists principally because people in the West today are more receptive to criticism of religion, which is a development we should welcome. Moreover, the message of the new atheists is not opposed to secular humanism. The new atheists simply do not address at length issues which many humanists regard as important.
However, in this regard, it should be noted that humanists themselves have not succeeded in delivering what they have promised, including a well-grounded secular ethics. Less attention should be paid to alleged differences between new atheists and humanists and more attention should be devoted to the positive goals humanist have set for themselves.
Dr. Ronald A. Lindsay (J.D., University of Virginia, Ph.D., Georgetown University) was in private practice with the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw LLP before joining the Center for Inquiry in 2006.
While a lawyer, he was still able to pursue his philosophical interests: He has taught at Georgetown University and American University; he has written for Free Inquiry since 1984; and he has authored a dozen articles that have appeared in refereed academic journals.
His book, Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas, was published by Prometheus in 2008.
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SylviaBEvent HostOrganizerI was really impressed. I have always thought that rather than affirmations or principles, we should take a methodological
approach to ethical questions, and Ron Lindsay proposed a process to use as a starting point for developing just such a methodology. I had not seen anyone do that before.
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Jason Van CleveHate to say it, but I found Lindsay rather boring and self-indulgent. I would have preferred a terser presentation. His arguments were neither well thought out nor concise.
I did agree with most of what he said, though. A notable exception: one of his slides said that secular humanism is an "orphan" without atheism. This is just confounding. Secular humanism may be atheistic by definition, but it seems to me a secular ethic should be able to stand very well on its own, without depending on any theological point of view.
It could even exist along with religion, which is an important point that Lindsay precludes unnecessarily.
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