What Is Enlightenment? Magazine Salon July Meetup

You are invited to a
What is Enlightenment? Salon

Atheists With Attitude

Dear Friends:

Does God exist? Is religion merely a superstition? Does anyone even care in an era when scientific rationalism has become, for many, a sufficient explanation for just about
everything under the sun?

These are some of the questions raised in the article "Atheists with Attitude," by editors Carter Phipps and Joel Pitney. The article addresses a phenomenon that is coming to be known as the "new atheism"--a fierce and highly publicized critique of religious belief being led by such thinkers as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. The new atheists contend that scientific rationality has proven religion (and spirituality in general) not only to be obsolete but downright dangerous. And they have set off a firestorm of controversy pitting philosopher against philosopher and evolutionist against theologian in a high-stakes turf war at the intersection of contemporary science and spirituality.

So where do you stand in all of this? And why are such questions about God, belief and scientific rationality of importance to the way we live our lives and to the culture that we create between us? In our next salon on Sunday, 7/20, we?ll discuss the controversy surrounding these skeptics and use the article?s ?six-point field guide to the new atheism? as a road map for exploring the diverse terrain of what it means to be ?godless? in the 21st Century. I hope you can join us. . . It?s bound to be enlightening!

I look forward to seeing you.

Sincerely,

Ana Miller

Sunday, 7/20
7:00 pm

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