The so-called new atheism turns out to be little more than a step backwards to the old-fashioned atheism, which used to make great play with the idea of an unbridgeable gulf between religion and science. Supporting this claim was, and to some extent still is, a simplistic appeal to the contrast between faith and reason, as if they had no need of each other. The main difference between the old and the new is a drastic change of tone. The new version has a sharper tongue, is gleefully aggressive rather than solemnly regretful, and makes much use of ridicule.

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h/t Christopher Snook