I can't be at all sure about this without doing some extensive research, but I have a shrewd suspicion that there's in fact a great degree of chumminess between elite spokespersons for conservative Christianity, and the toxic "New Atheism" of people like Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer. they seem to agree on so many political viewpoints that it's impossible not to guess that there must be some cross-pollination going on...some sort of comparing of notes and recognition of common purpose.
that may shock people who think that human beings and organizations behave rationally towards each other. "why would atheists and Christians agree with each other?!" the reasonable person may well exclaim. "aren't they unalterably opposed?" yes they are—ideologically, these two groups of people have incompatible goals. each hopes to defeat the other and lay unchallenged claim to the minds of the public. but in the meanwhile both right-wing Christians and right-wing atheists find that they're highly unpopular and widely despised; they have common enemies and this must naturally engender some degree of camaraderie between the two camps.
they both feel much the same way about the mass of humanity, i.e. they despise us and feel that we're too stupid or too depraved or too frightened of the cold hard Facts and Logic that they want the world to swallow without asking too many questions—and it must be stressed here that the Christians, just as much as the "New Atheists", claim to have faultless logic and reason and "science" on their side. Christians are eager imitators of all things and, just as Christians have come up with their own imitation rock music and their own genre fiction and their own news media, they've also come up with Christianized versions of academia and science, and (as with the rock music &c.) they claim that their imitations are the real thing, the only true thing. in any case, both "New Atheists" and Christian fanatics have convinced themselves that if ordinary human beings reject their purportedly bulletproof "logic", that only demonstrates that most human beings are witless and fit only to be driven about like cattle, for our own good.
the two sides attack each other in public, of course, but in a kind of ritualized and bloodless fashion. a New Atheist and a Christian will have a "debate", they'll posture and declaim and assert the superiority of their respective ideologies, each will call the other person deluded and irrational...and then they'll shake hands and smile at each other and perhaps commiserate over dinner after the debate, airing their mutual grievances with common enemies—Islam perhaps, or "woke mind virus", or Democrats, or whoever. yes, they're each sworn to destroy the other, but only when there's nobody else standing; until then they've got so many other villains to fight.
in the end they're not that much different. the Christian fanatics and the celebrity atheists both feel they have The Truth (there's always only the one Truth) and they both feel that most people need to be forced into accepting it; if people object to their Truth it's only out of "low intelligence" or willful rebellion against The Truth. the New Atheists say that The Truth is "scientific"; the Christians say that it's from God and Jesus; either way, they're certain about it and certain also that we need to have this Truth enforced, violently if necessary, for the greater good of humanity and civilization.
and each thinks they'll defeat each other in the long run. I do believe that the Christians will easily win that contest, by the way.
~Chara of Pnictogen
