In this article, we offer an overview of different version of contemporary atheism from the viewpoint of positive beliefs that are joined together with atheistic worldview. Our four main classes of atheism are scientistic atheism, philosophical atheism, tragic atheism and humanistic atheism, which can then be divided to various subclasses. With this classification, we aim to challenge the view according to which atheism is not a belief system but merely a lack of belief in some transcendent being. Moreover, there seems to be no atheism per se, but it always appears with some positive beliefs.

Chapter in 'New atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates' edited by Christopher Cotter and Philip Quadrio (Springer 2017). The spell of evolutionary psychology has distorted the understanding of motivations to religion and led prominent new atheists to ignore the deeper psychological and social functions of religion. Misunderstanding religion they adopt polemical measures that alienate the moderate centres of religion and are especially ineffective against those extreme religious manifestations which really do need to be countered. Their intellectualist and nativist accounts of religion’s origins and persistence are, in paradoxical concert with most religions, assaults on emotional insight. It is safer to construct subpersonal cognitive models than to recognize with psychodynamic theorists the sensual currents in religious practices and the ways in which relations to divine figures represent unconscious relations, often difficult, with parents.

American Atheist, 2000

A lecture given by Frank R. Zindler at the 26th National Convention of American Atheists in San Francisco, Saturday, 22 April 2000. "Weak Atheism" and "Strong Atheism" are defined in terms of the verifiability/falsifiability/testability theory of meaning.

Unapologetic: Why Philosophy of Religion Must End, 2016

I discuss atheistic philosophy of religion in this excerpt from Chapter 4 of my book "Unapologetic" (2016). Here's hoping it'll make a difference.

2014

That wasn’t supposed to be the title of this presentation. It was supposed to have to do with human genetic or physiological factors influencing spirituality. But when trying to understand religious faith, are these really the elements we should address first? My work on this project leads me to think otherwise, and as the project has changed in scope, so has my attitude toward and understanding of belief. I will discuss the factors that have led me away from a purely atheistic take on religion, such as the lack of a scientific language about spirituality, the New Atheism of those such as Dawkins and Hitchens and its counter-movements, and my own experiences with believers, nonbelievers, and their worldviews. I will also address questions faced by myself and anyone else going through a crisis of faith or of disbelief, including the definition of faith and what the most valid reasons to have it could be.

2010