6. Atheism in the 21st century

‘Atheism in the 21st century’ explains how, at the dawn of the 21st century, the position of atheism was fairly stable around the world. Early in this century, however, Western atheism suddenly came to much greater prominence. The new, assertive movement that was emerging was labelled 'the New Atheism'. The New Atheists were, for the most part, strongly critical of both moderate and fundamentalist religion, dismissive of the idea that they should avoid offending the faithful, and convinced that religious belief was profoundly irrational. They also claim that religion is harmful. Indeed, an objection to religion popular among the New Atheists is that most extremism is motivated by religious faith.