Agnosticism / Atheism: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams: Atheism is Just Too Cool

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Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams: Atheism is Just Too Cool Oct 5th 2011, 12:00 Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams November 23, 2010 Photo: Dan Kitwood / Getty Dismissing something as a "fad" is a popular way of avoiding dealing with it directly or substantively. That's what Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams did recently when he insisted that atheism is only popular because it's "cool" while books that purport to refute atheism are not "cool" so don't get attention. Yeah, sure, that's why they fail to attract readers -- they simply lack "coolness". It couldn't possibly be because, oh, that they are just failures? "I'd want to know how many atheists [Dawkins'] The God Delusion created. The book sold, but did it make a difference to the number of people who were actually committed one way or the other? . . . I'm not avoiding the point that the coolness of atheism is very much in evidence. I'm just not quite sure that it shifts people's serious commitments that much in the long run." "The problem is it becomes a bit of a vicious circle. Atheism is cool, so books about atheism are cool. They get a high profile, and books that say 'Actually, this, this and this are wrong Richard Dawkins' don't get the same kind of publicity because atheism is the new cool thing. It's the sort of dog-bites-man, man-bites-dog thing. One's news, the other not so much. "So it's difficult to break into that, but plenty of people are trying," the Archbishop said. Source: National Post Characterizing something as merely "cool" or a fad means characterizing it as superficial -- it's something that isn't deep and serious enough to merit any substantive attention or refutation. But if that's the case, why are people writing books to refute atheism and the arguments offered by atheists? There's a contradiction here, though I doubt Rowan Williams is able to recognize it. It's reasonable to wonder if the current popularity of atheism is indicative of any shifts in people's beliefs. Those who have studied the demographics of religious belief, though, have found that there aren't a lot of shifts within demographic groups over time -- however religious or irreligious a group is in their early to mid twenties, that's how they stay throughout their lives. Thus the real question is what sorts of shifts are occurring from one generation to the next -- and there the numbers are clear. Each subsequent generation, especially in America, is a bit less religious and a bit more secular than the previous. It's simply not plausible that all the books about and attention being paid to atheism right now has been having no influence on those changes. So: yes, Rowan Williams, the "cool" atheist books and writers have been having an impact and they have been making it easier for people to ditch your church. They aren't the only factor, to be sure, but they are a factor and none of your attacks on atheism is making much of a difference. Why? It's not because they lack "coolness" but rather because they are rehashing all the same, tired BS that current atheist writers are critiquing. Thus you're only proving them right.

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