Antitheism (sometimes anti-theism) is active opposition to theism. The etymology of the word comes from the Greek 'anti-' and 'theismos'. The term has had a range of applications; in secular contexts, it typically refers to direct opposition to belief in any deity, while in theistic ones, it sometimes refers to opposition to an actual god or gods. Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more gods or deities. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Opposition to theism

An antitheist is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "One opposed to belief in the existence of a God." The earliest citation given for this meaning is from 1833. Furthermore, an antitheist may be opposed to belief in the existence of any god or gods, and not merely one in particular. The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is generally regarded as the most comprehensive and scholarly dictionary of the English language. ... 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

The concept allows a useful distinction to be made between the simple rejection of theism, atheism, and a position of antipathy or opposition towards such beliefs. All antitheists are atheists but not all atheists are antitheists. “Atheist” redirects here. ...

Atheism

Antitheism may be adopted as a label by those who take the view that theism is destructive. One example of this view is demonstrated in Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001), in which Christopher Hitchens writes: "I'm not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful."^[1] However, Hitchens's use of the word seems to be as general anti-religious belief rather than exclusively as opposition to belief in deities. There is some support for this use, but it may be regarded as a misuse of the terminology by others, most of whom hold that antitheism is a subdivision within, or even a synonym of, atheism. For example, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1996) defines antitheist simply as a "disbeliever in the existence of God".^[2] It is not listed at all in Webster's Third New International Dictionary through the 1976 addenda, nor in the online version of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.^[3] Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (born in Portsmouth, England, April 13, 1949) is an author, journalist and literary critic. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is the common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, derived from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is a common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, deriving its name from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is the common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, derived from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ...

Antitheism first found its practical expression on a large scale in revolutionary France, where in 1793, according to Michael Burleigh in response to organised resistance to "organised ... irreligion...an 'anti-clerical' and self-styled 'non-religious' state embarked on a programme of mass-murder" in which "a quarter of a million people perished".^[4] Another well-known quote from this period is "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest", by Denis Diderot. In Soviet Russia the Bolsheviks originally embraced "an ideological creed which professed that all religion would atrophy" and "resolved to eradicate Christianity as such." In 1918 "Ten Orthodox hierarchs were summarily shot" and "Children were deprived of any religious education outside the home"^[5]. Increasingly draconian measures were employed. In addition to direct state persecution, the League of the Militant Godless was founded in 1925, churches were closed and vandalised and "by 1938 eighty bishops had lost their lives, while thousands of clerics were sent to ... labour camps"^[6] Michael Burleigh is a British author and historian. ... Portrait of Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767 Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher and writer. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... The Russian Orthodox Church (Русская Православная церковь) is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with... Society of the Godless (Общество безбожников in Russian); other names include Союз воинствующих безбожников (The Union of Belligerent Atheists) and Союз безбожников (The Union of the Godless), was a mass volunteer antireligious organization of Soviet workers in 1925-1947. ...

Militant atheism

The antitheist stance is sometimes called (although only metaphorically true) militant atheism.^[7] In 1922 Lenin wrote an essay On the Significance of Militant Materialism, in which he commended the journal Pod Znamenem Marksizma as a "militant atheist" journal. He defined this as "carry[ing] on untiring atheist propaganda and an untiring atheist fight".^[8] The League of the Militant Godless was established in the Soviet Union as a militant atheist organisation,^[9][10] and the term has also been applied to a number of key figures in the development of Marxism, including Karl Marx,^[11] Friedrich Engels^[12][13] and Joseph Dietzgen.^[14] Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a... Society of the Godless (Общество безбожников in Russian); other names include Союз воинствующих безбожников (The Union of Belligerent Atheists) and Союз безбожников (The Union of the Godless), was a mass volunteer antireligious organization of Soviet workers in 1925-1947. ... Marxism takes its name from the praxis — the synthesis of philosophy and political action — of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal – August 5, 1895, London), a 19th-century German political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... Joseph Dietzgen (December 1828 - 1888) was a socialist philosopher and anarchist sympathizer. ...

Today the term militant atheism may be used by theists as an epithet for the "militant evolutionists [who] want to silence the idea of creation".^[15] (Evolution, however, neither implies nor is implied by atheism, so this linguistic usage is effectively idiomatic.) It is sometimes used pejoratively to describe people who are considered too actively and outspokenly – or militantly – campaign for atheism and against religion: "those who advocate the elimination of religion" as opposed to "progressive, enlightened people who are simply 'nonbelievers'."^[16] It does not, however, imply any form of violence or call for it - indeed, these are undocumented. The word militant has come to refer to any individual or party engaged in aggressive physical or verbal combat, normally for a cause. ...

It has been suggested that it is also sometimes adopted as a "badge of honour" by some atheists.^[17] Catherine Fahringer of the Freedom From Religion Foundation has suggested that the label militant is often routinely applied to atheist for no good reason Р"very much as was the adjective 'damn' attached to the noun 'Yankee' during the Civil War."^[18] Catherine Fahringer (n̩e Compton) (born 1922) is an American activist who has campaigned for the separation of church and state in the USA. In 1988 Fahringer was one of the co-founders of the Freethought Forum, a San Antonio, Texas chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). ... The Freedom From Religion Foundation is an American Freethought organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. ...

Further examples of the use of the term "militant atheism"

• Key figures around the French Revolution and in the thinking leading up to it are sometimes described as militant atheists, for example Julien La Mettrie.^[19] The same applies to some of their international sympathisers, such as Thomas Holcroft.^[20]

• The 19th-century political activist Charles Bradlaugh has been described as "the first militant atheist in the history of Western civilization",^[21] and the term has also been applied to other 19th-century thinkers such as Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach^[22] and Annie Besant.^[23]

• Figures in the 20th century in the USA and the UK who have been described as militant atheists include Joseph McCabe^[24]and Michael Newdow.^[25][26] In his book Schopenhauer, Religion and Morality: the Humble Path to Ethics Gerard Mannion disputes "the textbook assessment of Schopenhauer as militant atheist and absolute pessimist."^[27]

• In 1965 Francis Crick explained that some lectures of his "will not be militantly anti-Christian, but nevertheless will be directed against the sort of ideas at present held by many religious people." ^[28] More recent examples of the use of the term include an opinion piece by Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph entitled "Militant atheists: too clever for their own good", ^[29] and an article in the same newspaper by Raj Persaud, who applies the term to Richard Dawkins.^[30] The editor of Quadrant Magazine also refers to Dawkins in these terms, and suggests that Dawkins' views are an extreme example of intolerance.^[31] Kevin Drumm in the Washington Monthly applies the term to Polly Toynbee.^[32] RJ Eskow in The Huffington Post refers to Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, saying "I believe most atheists are progressive, enlightened people who are simply 'nonbelievers.' My quarrel is only with those who advocate the elimination of religion based on grandiose and unsubstantiated claims."^[33]

• The Argentinian Supreme Court Judge Carmen Argibay apparently describes herself as a "militant atheist",^[34] and the journalist and campaigner Paul Foot has been praised as a "militant atheist".^[35]

The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on... Julien Offray de La Mettrie (December 25, 1709 - November 11, 1751) was a French physician and philosopher, the earliest of the materialist writers of the Enlightenment. ... Thomas Holcroft (December 10, 1745 - March 23, 1809) was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. ... Charles Bradlaugh (26 September 1833 _ 30 January 1891) was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. ... This article refers to the philosopher. ... Annie Besant Plaque on house in Colby Road, London SE19 where Annie Besant lived in 1874. ... Joseph Martin McCabe (12 November 1867 - 10 January 1955) was a well-known atheist. ... The Rev. ... Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher born in Gdańsk (Danzig), Poland. ... Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, who is most noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. ... Charles Moore (born October 31, 1956) is a former editor of the Daily Telegraph (1995-2003). ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... Prof. ... Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... Kevin Drumm is an experimental musician based in Chicago, USA. Emerging from the citys improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one the worlds pre-eminent tabletop guitar, or prepared guitar, players. ... The Washington Monthly is a magazine based in Washington DC which covers American politics and government. ... Polly Toynbee (born Mary Louisa Toynbee on December 27, 1946) is a journalist and writer in the United Kingdom, and has since 1998 been a highly influential columnist for The Guardian newspaper. ... RJ Eskow is a business person, musician, and writer. ... Logo of Huffington Post The Huffington Post (often referred to on the Internet as HuffPost or HuffPo) is a political group weblog founded by Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer. ... Sam Harris Sam Harris (born 1967) is an American author with active interests in philosophy, religion and neuroscience. ... Carmen María Argibay (born 15 June 1939 in Buenos Aires) is a member of the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice. ... Paul Foot addressing a miners rally, June 1984 Paul Mackintosh Foot (November 8, 1937 – July 18, 2004) was a British radical investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). ...

Atheistic evangelism

Atheistic evangelism is another term used by Christian apologists to describe the approach those who actively promote atheism. Numerous Christian apologists^{[attribution needed]} have described the characteristics of "atheistic evangelism" during the past century and a half. "Evangelical atheism" is the term used by atheist Dan Barker. Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. ... Dan Barker (born June 25, 1949) is a prominent American atheist activist who served as an evangelical preacher for 19 years, but left Christianity in 1984. ...

Christian apologists argue^{[citation needed]} that common tactics of atheistic evangelist include ridiculing the intelligence of those who hold an alternate point of view as well as ignoring or glossing over the legitimate scientific arguments presented by opponents.

Origins

Christian apologists^{[attribution needed]} consider Thomas Huxley to be the first atheistic evangelist.^{[citation needed]} Huxley himself denied that he was an atheist, preferring the term agnostic, which he coined in 1869.^[36] Thomas Henry Huxley, FRS (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) [1] was an English biologist, known as Darwins Bulldog for his advocacy of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. ... The term agnosticism and the related agnostic were coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869. ...

Harvard botanist and Christian Asa Gray, one of the first supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution, first noted the phenomenon in 1868 when he referred to "the English-materialistic-positivistic line of thought".^[37] Such thought was usually associated with Thomas Huxley at the time. Asa Gray, Botanist Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 - January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. ...

The religious nature of Huxley's beliefs were referenced in Janet Browne's biography of Charles Darwin:

Huxley was rampaging on miracles and the existence of the soul. A few months later, he was to coin the word "agnostic" to describe his own position as neither a believer nor a disbeliever, but one who considered himself free to inquire rationally into the basis of knowledge. . .

The term fitted him well . . . and it caught the attention of the other free thinking, rational doubters in Huxley's ambit, and came to signify a particularly active form of scientific rationalism during the final decades of the 19th century...

In his hands, agnosticism became as doctrinaire as anything else--a religion of skepticism. Huxley used it as a creed that would place him on a higher moral plane than even bishops and archbishops. All the evidence would nevertheless suggest that Huxley was sincere in his rejection of the charge of outright atheism against himself.

To inquire rigorously into the spiritual domain, he asserted, was a more elevated undertaking than slavishly to believe or disbelieve. "A deep sense of religion is compatible with the entire absence of theology," he had told [Anglican clergyman] Charles Kingsley back in 1860. "Pope Huxley", the [magazine] Spectator dubbed him. The label stuck."^[38]

The New Activism

Starting with Richard Dawkins, evolutionist and Oxford Professor, a group of intellectuals have recently mounted a pro-atheism, anti-religious campaign. In addition to Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens are the most visible faces of this movement. Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Daniel Clement Dennett (b. ... Sam Harris Sam Harris (born 1967) is an American author with active interests in philosophy, religion and neuroscience. ... Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (born in Portsmouth, England, April 13, 1949) is an author, journalist and literary critic. ...

Dan Barker is a leading American atheist writer. He is also the founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. In 1993, Barker wrote a ground breaking article on "Evangelical atheism" in which he provided advice to atheists interested in promoting atheism: Dan Barker (born June 25, 1949) is a prominent American atheist activist who served as an evangelical preacher for 19 years, but left Christianity in 1984. ...

I am not suggesting that every atheist should be an evangelist. Some are better off temporarily keeping their views to themselves for job security or family harmony. Some freethinkers wisely wait until they retire, when they have little to lose, before they become vocal. In certain communities, open unbelief can be costly. [...]

If you decide to be evangelistic, then ask yourself what you hope to accomplish. Are you trying to win an argument? To simply end an argument? To demolish the enemy? To chase bigoted theocrats from your door?

We want to enhance self image, not squash it. You can't yank someone out of the fold. If your objective is to end up with a friend, then woo them, don't boo them. You may not respect their current views, but you can respect their potential to learn.^[39]

Edward Tabash, an atheist attorney based in California, states his purpose on his website as follows:

The arguments against the supernatural are powerful both from a philosophical and scientific standpoint. These arguments must be put before the public so that everyone will have access to the compelling reasons for coming to an Atheistic worldview, before deciding whether to believe or not believe. [ . . . ]

My ultimate goal is to help Atheism become so widespread and universal that when people state that they do not believe in God, we will not be able to tell, from that statement alone, what a person's position may be on a wide array of political issues. I am hoping that people from all over the political spectrum and from many diverse points of view will be able to come together and agree on the naturalistic reality that prevails in our world.

It is long overdue for Atheistic arguments to be given a seat at the table of the marketplace of ideas in today's world. I have established this website in the hope of providing a platform for the dissemination of these arguments.^[40]

Paul Kurtz, editor in chief of Free Inquiry, has written an opinion piece about the criticism of Dawkins and Harris in which he discusses the usage of the term "evangelical" in this context.^[41] Dr. Paul Kurtz Paul Kurtz (born December 21, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), but is best known for his prominent role in the United States skeptical community. ... Free Inquiry is a bi-monthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary, published by the Council for Secular Humanism. ...

Opposition to God

Some sources, particularly religious ones, have defined antitheism as opposition to God, holiness or the divine rather than simply as opposition to belief in God, theism. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Holiness is the state of being holy, that is, set apart for the worship or service of God or gods. ... Divinity has a number of related uses in the field of religious belief and study. ... Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more gods or deities. ...

The Chambers Dictionary defines antitheism in three different ways: "doctrine antagonistic to theism; denial of the existence of a God; opposition to God." The first is closest to Hitchens' usage, which seems to be a generally anti-religious belief rather than an exclusively opposition to belief in deities. The second is synonymous with strong atheism. The third and first, on the other hand, need not be atheistic at all. The ninth edition of the Chambers Dictionary of the English language was published in 2003 by Chambers Harrap. ... Various Religious symbols, including (first row) Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Bahai, (second row) Islamic, tribal, Taoist, Shinto (third row) Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Jain, (fourth row) Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess, Maltese cross, pre-Christian Slavonic Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual... Strong atheism, sometimes called positive atheism, hard atheism or gnostic atheism, is the philosophical position that no deity exists. ...

Earlier definitions of antitheism include that of the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1953), for whom it is "an active struggle against everything that reminds us of God" (p.104), and that of Robert Flint (1877), Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Flint's Baird Lecture for 1877 was entitled Anti-Theistic Theories.^[42] He used it as a very general umbrella term for all opposition to his own form of theism, which he defined as the "belief that the heavens and the earth and all that they contain owe their existence and continuance to the wisdom and will of a supreme, self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, and benevolent Being, who is distinct from, and independent of, what He has created."^[43] He wrote: Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (November 18, 1882 – April 28, 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. ... Robert Flint (1838 – 1910) was a Scottish theologian and philosopher, who wrote also on sociology. ... The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582,[4] is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of related concepts, also called a hypernym. ...

In dealing with theories which have nothing in common except that they are antagonistic to theism, it is necessary to have a general term to designate them. Anti-theism appears to be the appropriate word. It is, of course, much more comprehensive in meaning than the term atheism. It applies to all systems which are opposed to theism. It includes, therefore, atheism... But short of atheism there are anti-theistic theories. Polytheism is not atheism, for it does not deny that there is a Deity; but it is anti-theistic, since it denies that there is only one. Pantheism is not atheism, for it admits that there is a God; but it is anti-theism, for it denies that God is a being distinct from creation and possessed of such attributes as wisdom, and holiness, and love. Every theory which refuses to ascribe to God an attribute which is essential to a worthy conception of His character is anti-theistic. Only those theories which refuse to acknowledge that there is evidence even for the existence of a God are atheistic.^[44]

However, Flint also acknowledges that antitheism is typically understood differently than how he defines it. In particular, he notes that it has been used as a subdivision of atheism, descriptive of the view that theism has been disproven, rather than as the more general term that Flint prefers. He rejects non-theistic as an alternative, "not merely because of its hybrid origin and character, but also because it is far too comprehensive. Theories of physical and mental science are non-theistic, even when in no degree, directly or indirectly, antagonistic to theism."^[45] Nontheism (or non-theism), broadly conceived, according to Caporale & Grumelli (1971) , is the absence of belief in both the existence and non-existence of a deity (or deities, or other numinous phenomena). ...

It should be noted from Flint's examples above that while failure to agree with a belief does not necessarily indicate opposition to that belief, theists of the more dogmatic fundamentalist variety would claim that failing to believe as they do about God represents an anti-theistic viewpoint. Failure to conform to their attitude about God would be treasonous for denying that God has the attributes such people ascribe to him, and perhaps even evil. History is of course rife with examples of zealots who deem all who disagree with their view of God, or lack thereof, to be evil, frequently using this as justification for persecution and even genocide.

Opposition to God is frequently referred to as dystheism (which means "belief in a deity that is not benevolent") or misotheism (strictly speaking, this means "hatred of God"). Examples of belief systems founded on the principle of opposition to God include satanism and maltheism. Dystheism is the belief that there is a God that does exist and is not wholly good, or might even be evil. The opposite concept is eutheism, the belief that God exists and is good. ... Misotheism-greek (μίσος miso-hate, theism- of God, from Greek Θεός theos)-literally hatred of God or Gods. ... Satanism Associated organizations Church of Satan First Satanic Church First Church of Satan Prominent figures Anton LaVey | Blanche Barton | Peter H. Gilmore | Peggy Nadramia | Karla LaVey Associated concepts Left-Hand Path | Pentagonal Revisionism | Suitheism | Survival of the fittest | Objectivism | Might Is Right Books and publications The Satanic Bible | The Satanic... Eutheism and dystheism are dialectic opposites within the spectrum of theistic religious beliefs. ...

Other uses

Another use of the term antitheism was coined by Christopher New in a thought experiment published in 1993. In his article, he imagines what arguments for the existence of an evil God would look like: "Antitheists, like theists, would have believed in an omnipotent, omniscient, eternal creator; but whereas theists in fact believe that the supreme being is also perfectly good, antitheists would have believed that he was perfectly evil."^[46] In normal usage, such believers would be called dystheists or maltheists; they would however still qualify as theists since the concept of theism (contrary to common assumption) is not restricted to belief in benevolent deities. Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Dystheism is the belief that there is a God that does exist and is not wholly good, or might even be evil. The opposite concept is eutheism, the belief that God exists and is good. ...

See also

• Antireligion
• Dystheism

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Dystheism is the belief that there is a God that does exist and is not wholly good, or might even be evil. The opposite concept is eutheism, the belief that God exists and is good. ...

Notes

Michael Burleigh is a British author and historian. ... Michael Burleigh is a British author and historian. ... Society of the Godless (Общество безбожников in Russian); other names include Союз воинствующих безбожников (The Union of Belligerent Atheists) and Союз безбожников (The Union of the Godless), was a mass volunteer antireligious organization of Soviet workers in 1925-1947. ... RJ Eskow is a business person, musician, and writer. ... Logo of Huffington Post The Huffington Post (often referred to on the Internet as HuffPost or HuffPo) is a political group weblog founded by Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer. ... Charles Lester Kinsolving (born 1927 in New York City) is a political talk radio host, currently heard on WCBM in Baltimore, Maryland. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... Dr. Paul Kurtz Paul Kurtz (born December 21, 1925 in Newark, New Jersey) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), but is best known for his prominent role in the United States skeptical community. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini era. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (88th in leap years). ...

References

• Hitchens, Christopher (2001). Letters to a Young Contrarian (ISBN 0-465-03032-7). New York: Basic Books.
• Maritain, Jacques (1953). The Range of Reason. London: Geoffrey Bles. Electronic Text
  • Note: Chapter 8, The Meaning of Contemporary Atheism (p.103-117, Electronic Text) is reprinted from Review of Politics, Vol. 11 (3) July 1949, p. 267-280 Electronic Text. A version also appears The Listener, Vol. 43 No.1102, 9 March 1950. pp.427-429,432.
• Barker, Dan Evangelistic Atheism: Leading Believers Astray in Freethought Today, 1993
• Browne, Janet, The Power of Place, Volume 2 of the Biography of Charles Darwin.(Alfred Knopf, 2002)
• Segal, David, Atheist Evangelist, article in the Washington Post Thursday, October 26, 2006; Page C01
• Witham, Larry, By Design (Encounter Books, 2003)
• Wolff, Gary, in The New Atheism, The Church of the Non-Believers reprinted in Wired Magazine, November 2006
• Wright, N. T., The Last Word (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005)