Abstract:
The New Atheist movement has been called “fundamentalist” in its allegiance to science. While true that New Atheism is remarkable among the various historical formations of atheism for its championing of the sciences, it is not fundamentalist. Where it does share a resemblance to Christian fundamentalism is in their respective attachments to a salvific epistemology either of science or of faith. For New Atheists, science “saves” as it provides order against chaos. This paper focuses on the writings of the New Atheist Sam Harris, drawing attention not just to the ordering function of science generally but also the ways in which Harris deploys science to engulf 1) morality, 2) the Buddhist belief that the self is an illusion, and 3) Buddhist practices of meditation. This study illuminates some affective potencies of science (or other potential epistemologies) as an ordering, and therefore “salvific,” way of navigating the world.
Keywords:
new atheism, Sam Harris, scientism, theory of religion, affect theory, religion and science, implicit religion
How to cite:
Ruper, Stefani. “The Saving Order of Science: New Atheist Sam Harris’s Scientism is not Fundamentalism but Affective Attachment to a Salvific Epistemology.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 8, no. 2 (2024): 27-60. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2024.0009.
Author:
Stefani Ruper
University of Oxford
St. Aldates, Oxford, OX1 1DP, UK
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1398-2256
stefaniruper@gmail.com
References:
Almond, Gabriel, R. Scott Appleby, and Emmanuel Sivan. Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226014999.001.0001.
Amarasingam, Amarnath, ed. Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal. Vol. 25 of Studies in Critical Social Sciences. Leiden and Boston, MD: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.
Angier, Natalie. “‘The End of Faith’: Against Toleration.” The New York Times, September 5, 2004. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/books/review/the-end-of-faith-against-toleration.html.
Armstrong, Karen. The Case for God: What Religion Really Means. London: Bodley Head, 2009.
Asad, Talal. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. https://doi.org/10.1353/book.16014.
Bernstein, Richard. Beyond Objectivism and Relativism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812205503.
Borer, Michael Ian. “The New Atheism and the Secularization Thesis.” In Religion and the New Atheism. Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam, 125-38. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.47.
Bruenig, Elizabeth. “Is the New Atheism Dead?” The New Republic, November 4, 2015. https://newrepublic.com/article/123349/new-atheism-dead.
Bullivant, Stephen. “The New Atheism and Sociology: Why Here? Why Now? What Next?” In Religion and the New Atheism. Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam, 109-24. Leiden, Boston, MA: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.42.
Carolina Baptista Menezes and Lisiane Bizarro. “Effects of a Brief Meditation Training on Negative Affect, Trait Anxiety and Concentrated Attention.” Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto) 25, no. 62 (December 1, 2015): 393-401. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-43272562201513.
Clarke, Lynda. “Fundamentalism and Shiism.” In Fundamentalism: Perspectives on a Contested History. Edited by Simon A. Wood and David Harrington Watt, 163-80. Studies in Comparative Religion. Columbia, South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv6wggnd.14.
Timonen, Josh, dir. Discussions with Richard Dawkins, Episode 1: The Four Horsemen. Los Angeles: Upper Branch Productions, 2008.
Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. London: Bantam Press, 2006.
Dennett, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking, 2006.
Dennett, Daniel. “The Bright Stuff.” The New York Times, 2003. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/12/opinion/the-bright-stuff.html?mcubz=3.
Dennett, Daniel. “Daniel Dennett Discusses Secular Spirituality.” Big Think, 2009. https://bigthink.com/videos/daniel-dennett-discusses-secular-spirituality.
Feuerbach, Ludwig. “The Essence of Christianity,” translated by George Eliot. In Theories of Religion: A Reader. Edited by Seth D. Kunin and Jonathan Miles-Watson. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006.
Foucault, Michel. “‘Technologies of the Self’ Lectures at University of Vermont Oct. 1982.” In Technologies of the Self, 16-49. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. https://foucault.info/documents/foucault.technologiesOfSelf.en/.
Fuller, Steve. “Science and the New Atheism.” In Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal, edited by Amarnath Amarasingam, 57-77. Vol. 25, Studies in Critical Social Sciences. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.26.
Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity, 1991.
Harris, Sam. “Sam Harris: On Secular Fundamentalism.” YouTube video. March 6, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplN3-mLdUw.
Harris, Sam. “Edge Question 2017: What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?” Sam Harris (blog). https://samharris.org/edge-question-2017/.
Harris, Sam. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. London: Free Press, 2004.
Harris, Sam. Letter to a Christian Nation. London: Bantam, 2007.
Harris, Sam. The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. London: Bantam, 2010.
Harris, Sam. “Speaking of ‘Truth’ with Jordan Peterson.” Sam Harris (blog), January 23, 2017. https://samharris.org/speaking-of-truth-with-jordan-b-peterson/.
Harris, Sam. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion. London: Bantam Press, 2014.
Hedges, Chris. I Don’t Believe in Atheists. London: Continuum, 2008.
Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: The Case against Religion. London: Atlantic, 2007.
Hurley, Patrick J. A Concise Introduction to Logic. 7th edition. New York: Wadsworth, 2000.
Kaden, Tom, and Thomas Schmidt-Lux. “Scientism and Atheism Then and Now: The Role of Science in the Monist and New Atheist Writings.” Culture and Religion 17, no. 1 (January 2, 2016): 73-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2016.1160944.
Keown, Damien. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. 2nd edition. Oxford: University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199663835.001.0001.
LeDrew, Stephen. The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement. Oxford Scholarship Online. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190225179.001.0001.
Levine, George Lewis. Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-Enchantment of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008
Lopez, Donald S. Buddhism & Science: A Guide for the Perplexed. Buddhism and Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Lopez, Donald S. Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Lopez, Donald S. The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life. The Terry Lectures Series. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
Manuel, Frank Edward. The Religion of Isaac Newton. The Fremantle Lectures. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.
McAnulla, Stuart. “Secular Fundamentalists? Characterising the New Atheist Approach to Secularism, Religion, and Politics.” British Politics 9, no. 2 (2014): 124-45. https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87747/, 1-25.
McGrath, Alister E. The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. London: Rider, 2004.
Nixon, Alan. “Contemporary Atheism as Hyper-Real Irreligion: The Enchantment of Science and Atheism in This Cosmos.” In Handbook of Hyper-Real Religions. Edited by Adam Possamai. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion vol. 5. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004226944_021.
Pigliucci, Massimo. “New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement: New Atheism and Scientism.” Midwest Studies In Philosophy 37, no. 1 (September 2013): 142-53. https://doi.org/10.1111/misp.12006.
Pleins, J. David. The Evolving God: Charles Darwin on the Naturalness of Religion. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
Possamai, Adam. Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament. Vol. 7, Gods, Humans, and Religions. New York: PIE-Peter Lang, 2005. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0352-6259-9.
Robbins, Jeffrey W., and Christopher D. Rodkey. “Beating ‘God’ to Death: Radical Theology and the New Atheism.” In Religion and the New Atheism. Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam, 25-36. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.15.
Ruse, Michael. “Is New Atheism a Religion?” The Huffington Post (blog), March 22, 2011. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-ruse/is-new-atheism-a-religion_b_837758.html.
Schaefer, Donovan O. Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372103-004.
Schaefer, Donovan O. “Beautiful Facts: Science, Secularism, and Affect.” In Feeling Religion. Edited by John Corrigan, 69-91. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.
Schaefer, Donovan O. “It’s Not What You Think: Affect Theory and Power Take to the Stage.” Duke University Press (blog), 2016. https://dukeupress.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/its-not-what-you-think-affect-theory-and-power-take-to-the-stage/.
Schulzke, Marcus. “New Atheism and Moral Theory.” Journal of Global Ethics 9, no. 1 (2013): 65-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2012.756420.
Schulzke, Marcus. “The Politics of New Atheism.” Politics and Religion 6, no. 4 (2013): 778-99. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048313000217.
Sherlock, Michael. “Is ‘New Atheism’ a Religious, or Faith-Based Movement?” Atheist and Freethought (blog), 2015. https://michaelsherlockauthor.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/is-new-atheism-a-religious-or-faith-based-movement/.
Stahl, William A. “One-Dimensional Rage: The Social Epistemology of the New Atheism and Fundamentalism.” In Religion and the New Atheism. Edited by Amarnath Amarasingam, 97-109. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004185579.i-253.38.
Stewart, Kathleen. Ordinary Affects. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822390404.
Sukhsohale, Neelam D., and Mrunal S. Phatak. “Effect of Short-Term and Long-Term Brahmakumaris Raja Yoga Meditation on Physiological Variables.” Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 56, no. 4 (2012): 388-92.
Tye, Michael. Consciousness and Persons: Unity and Identity. Representation and Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press, 2003.
Wallace, B. Alan. Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge. Columbia Series in Science and Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Wilson, Edward O. On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1978.
Wolf, Gary. “The Church of the Non-Believers.” Wired Magazine, Nov. 1, 2006. https://www.wired.com/2006/11/atheism/.
Wood, Simon A., and David Harrington Watt. “Introduction.” In Fundamentalism: Perspectives on a Contested History. Edited by Simon A. Wood and David Harrington Watt, 1-17. Studies in Comparative Religion. Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv6wggnd.5.
Open Access Statement:
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Submitting a text to Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture means that the author agrees with the general conditions of this license. The author does and will maintain copyrights and publishing rights for his/her article without any restrictions.