I wonder if the ‘new’ atheists ever wonder what they have to pass on to the next generation. The fruit of their campaign will be the ones who come after them–the ones they have taught. The old guys like Dawkins who will soon enough disappear from the scene will then be the ‘old’ atheists. (They are already to tell the truth) The next generation will be the real new atheists, and I wonder what they will be like.

The problem with the atheists is they have no creed so they can have no catechesis. They have no community so they can have no church. Since they have nothing positive to believe in they have nothing positive to pass on. The atheist position is a reaction against something rather than a position for something. It is the option of emptiness and without the energy of rage it has nothing to keep it going. Without religion–especially without the Catholic Church–there would be nothing for them to talk about; nothing for them to write books about; nothing for them to protest; nothing for them to get rich speaking gigs for; nothing for them to get worked up for; nothing for them to fear.

“Ah,” they say, “without religion we would be able to live in peace and freedom and help mankind move on to a higher plane of consciousness and goodness.” They can do that now without being religious. Why don’t they just get on with it and leave the religious people alone? “But” they protest in their self righteous way, “religious people are the ones who cause all the grief and violence and abuse in the world. We want to stop that.”

I don’t know. There seems to be plenty of grief and guilt and violence and abuse in the world that is done by non-religious people. Why don’t they belt up and get on and help all the non-religious people who are victims of violence and rage and abuse or go on a campaign to stop all the non religious people being selfish, violent, abusive and nasty?

The atheist’s problem is that without their anti-God, anti-religion rage they don’t really have much staying power. Their next generation will soon drift into what I call the “real atheism”–not raging and writing books and mocking Mother Theresa and the Pope–not taking cheap shots at televangelists and Protestant fundamentalists.

The really new atheism will be the sluggardly torpor of despair. The real atheists are the seemingly sub human souls who get up in the morning; go to work; come home; watch TV; eat; have sex; sleep and start again tomorrow–never once giving God or religion or morality or the life to come one thought. Ever. These are the really new atheists, and these poor souls will be the legacy of the ‘new’ atheists.

And these seemingly soul less brutes are with us even now, living like zombies–and just as frightening to see.