I Don't Believe in Chris Hedges: A Book Review

Is this guy kidding, or what?
I have just finished reading I Don't Believe in Atheists, by Chris Hedges (2008) and I am a bit shattered by what I have just read. Personally, I am marginally indifferent to this book -- bordering on disgust, especially when he makes statements like this:

The agenda of the new atheists . . . is disturbing. These atheists embrace a belief system as intolerant, chauvinistic, and bigoted as that of religious fundamentalists. They propose a route to collective salvation and the moral advancement of the human species through science and reason. --p. 1-2.

Throughout the book Hedges takes Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens out of context and tries to make the reader see their ideas as extremist and violent. I did not perceive this, and I have read three or four of the books he mentions at least twice! Hedges subscribes to a defeatist attitude toward humankind and I think that is sad.

I agree with Hedges views on moral advancement, to a point, but his accusation that atheists "seek to destroy those who do not conform to their vision" seems a bit harsh and downright paranoid, really.

And saying that atheists are "as intolerant, chauvinistic, and bigoted as fundamentalists" also hardly seems fair when you consider that atheists are still practically in hiding for fear of being called "unpatriotic", "un-American," and immoral collectively. This is not a very good book, at least when I compare it to American Fascists (2004), which is a better book and one that I generally liked.

Hedges also seems too much against science and reason for my taste. Despite what he says, I still think science and reason have a good track record on positive advancements for humanity overall. His stance against science and reason is based on all the immoral uses of the results of science and reason and he comes off as an anti-intellectualist. Apparently he is not as alarmed as some of us are by the virtual "dumbing down" of American society.

I am aligned with Hedges on his views of our corrupt government and the need to dismantle the current corporate power structure, but on this book's topic, we part ways. Atheists are not as Hedges describes them in this weak argument of a book. **1/2