New Atheism: The Godlessness That Failed

The definitive account of why New Atheism rose and vanished, expanding the earlier short post. After conveying the staggering mid-2000s scale of internet atheism (the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Talk Origins, r/atheism) and charting its decline, it separates intellectual 'Early Internet Argument Culture' from the activist, celebrity-driven New Atheism that followed. The thesis: New Atheism was a 'failed hamartiology' - a theory of where evil comes from (answer: religion). The nascent Blue Tribe adopted it as its identity around 2004, then around 2015 swapped it for a better hamartiology (racism/sexism, via Black Lives Matter) - 'CTRL+F and replace a couple of keywords' - which is why the atheist bloggers quietly became social-justice bloggers (Atheism Plus) and the movement evaporated.

Quality 83 · Excellent. An ambitious, data-rich cultural history with a sharp, original, and durable explanatory frame ('failed hamartiology') plus a provocative genealogy of Blue Tribe identity; one of his most-shared analyses and far weightier than the short precursor. Excellent, upper end.

Claude’s paradigm shift 62 · Notable shift. A fresh, propagating synthesis at publication - the hamartiology-swap account of why a whole movement converted - though it builds on his own Red/Blue tribe vocabulary and standard cultural history. Notable shift.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. An ambitious, data-rich cultural history with a sharp, durable explanatory frame ('failed hamartiology') and a provocative Blue-Tribe genealogy; one of his most-shared analyses. Influential within intellectual and online discourse, but conceptual with no material change — low RWI.