Fundamentalist Atheism?

     I have noticed, since I became an atheist and since I started openly using the term to describe myself, that the word "atheist" alone carries a lot of sigma and negative connotations. Atheists are statistically the least trusted group in America. Comedian Dane Cook's famous joke about atheists, though hilarious, epitomizes the public conception of atheists. I even recall a point where I simply told someone I was an atheist and they started to defend their faith immediately, through Pascal's Wager.

     What is it about the concept that prickles the religious? Why is there a vague fear or mistrust of atheists?

      To address the main connotation of the word "atheist," I would like to reassure those who feel uneasy. Atheists, for the most part, do not wish to pull you away from your faith. There are very few that will snobbishly swipe their nose and scoff when you mention your faith and then challenge it. And the ones that do are much less associated with atheism then they are with douchebaggery. Unfortunately, it is these people who take the face of atheism, because they are the only ones who speak out on behalf of atheism and because they have been associated with "New Atheism."

      The New Atheist movement erupted recently with a surge in atheist writings, notably by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Dan Dennet (known by the religious defense as "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"). There is a wide range of sensitivity for the religious in these books, but they all convey an important message: society should peel back the latent protection we place on religion.

      Our beliefs are scrutinized regularly in our culture, especially in a student culture, where views and beliefs are developing rapidly. Gay marriage, abortion rights, drug laws, economics strategies, global warming, immigration, foreign policy, and every other topic in the world are free to be discussed and to evolve in the public eye. When the conversation arrives at religion, however, it falls silent. Under the guise of "respecting people's beliefs," we have shut down the ability to be critical of others beliefs.

     So is the New Atheist movement at least reasonable? I should think so. The theists that see the movement as "Fundamentalist Atheism" do not seem to want to discuss their beliefs. Is it not reasonable to ask for justification for a belief?