“But I’m not that kind of atheist!”

I myself have had discussions with atheists who would disavoy the strident tone and intolerant rhetoric of the so-called ‘new atheists’.

Truth is, atheists comes in various shapes, sizes and flavours.

Andrew Wilson has reviewed a book by John Gray entitled ‘Seven Types of Atheism’.

Here are Gray’s seven types:

1. ‘New Atheism’

Dating back to 19th-century thinks such as Henri de Saint-Simon, August Comte, J. G. Frazer, the new atheism atheism lives on in the work of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and others.’  Gray dismisses this type of atheism as ‘mostly a media phenomenon and best appreciated as a type of entertainment.’

2. Secular Humanism

The idea that humans are gradually improving is an idea drawn, ironically enough, from Christianity.  Only, the source of progress is seen now, not as God, but humanity itself.  According to Gray: ‘The belief that humans are gradually improving is the central article of faith of modern humanism.  “When wrenched from monotheistic religion, however, it is not so much false as meaningless.’

3. Scientism

Dating back to post-Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Hume and Kant, various disparate ideologies – eugenics, communism, transhumanism among them – share a commitment to human advancement based on increased scientific knowledge.

4. Political Religion

Gnosticism, which promises enlightenment through knowledge, and Christianity, which holds out hope for total renewal, combine to fuel revolution and couterrevolution.  Not only the French and Russion revolutions, and Nazi ideology, but modern liberalism imagine that the world can be renewed in their own image, if only the ignorance of the masses can be overcome.

5. Misotheism

This form of atheism does not so much disbelieve in God, as hate him (usually, it is is some specific God, such as the God of Christianity, which is despised).  The Marquis de Sade, some of Dostoevsky’s characters, and William Empson  represent and speak for those who reject God not because they deny his existence, but because their dislike him.

6. Atheism without Progress

Whereas a number of the above-mentioned atheisms imagne that they have found the key to universal progress, there is a form that despairs of progress.  For Santayana, ‘Disillusion proved liberating, since it allowed a view of the world from a perspective that did not expect salvation in history.’

7. Godless Mysticism

The search for godless transcendence is represented by such disparate figures as Arthur Schopenhauer, Benedict Spinoza, and Lev Shestov.  Schopenhauer found in the music, and Spinoza found it in nature.  Even the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) ‘prayed to God to rid him of the idea of God’.