The particular neckbeardy, fedora wearing, Sam Harris listening trend of atheism was a pretty clear reaction to the evangelical psychosis of the Bush administration.
Other geriatrics here can attest that the character of Christianity at the time was way different than it is now. These days, the fascists are more "culturally Christian" and avoid overt bible apologism. But back in the day, these people were constantly on TV spewing young earth creationism and other shit, and they were largely taken seriously. It's hard to believe now how much time was spent "debating" evolution back then. The atheist backlash at least affected discourse aesthetically for some time, making these views laughable, which deplatformed a lot of evangelicals or made them hide their power levels on TV.
Some argue that this brand of atheism justifies imperialism. It does so really only in theory. There really is no material basis for atheists in the US to justify an invasion anywhere in the world. The truth is that Christianity is still a far more powerful force for imperialism. Bush said that God told him to invade Iraq. I don't see any president saying anytime soon that the US needs to secularize a country through force.
If fundamentalist and political religiosity were defeated, then belligerent atheism would dissolve, but the reverse is not true.
Overall, it really does seem like people over emphasize this group of internet no-lifers because of the cultural cringe they manifested.
A lot of :reddit-logo: New Atheists hold onto fundie/cath baggage even while under pretenses of being against it. It's the entire basis of "cultural Christianity" and even "secular Calvinism" :brainworms:
:doubt:
I've heard "if only everyone was (same belief) there would be no more war" soooo many times in so many versions, atheism included (from a belligerent Sam Harris bro).
Someone hateful and selfish wouldn't magically undergo a Sailor Moon like transformation into a comrade if religion went poof. I see no reason why justifications for imperialist resource wars from self described capital-R "Rationalists" would suddenly stop if religion disappeared, if such a thing were really possible anyway. Liberals benefit from such violence materially; the religious bullshit is just convenient for oiling the gears, including contempt for "enemy" religions from tradcaths, fundies, and contemporary reactionary atheists alike.
I didn't say they'd become comrades or less hateful or selfish.
What I mean is that atheism would cease to be an identity that these people rally behind. They would certainly be assholes in other ways.
Like you say, the athiesm thing is a veneer to justify the violence they benefit from (when directed at enemy nations).
Rhetorically speaking, atheism itself would itself cease to exist as a meaningful concept if religion magically disappeared. Even the word is defined by what it presents itself as not being.
As you say, we're getting rhetorical, and I'm mostly agreeing with you, but I didn't say if religion completely disappeared. I said fundamentalist and political religion.
Which is to say, there wouldn't be a reason to unify behind athiesm as a political identity anymore.
I'm not sure what meaningful significance there is to that statement.
Would too. Delusion and false belief are bad, even if they're not driving any specific atrocity at this exact moment.
Atheism is deeply enmeshed with empiricism. Atheism is, more than anything else, the position that no evidence for any supernatural entity or phenomena exists. In the absence of religious belief and superstition people would go right on believing in an empirically observable universe devoid of magic.