Daniel Dennett: New Atheism has changed the face of America

The movement known as New Atheism has changed the political landscape of the United States, according to philosopher and prominent non-believer Daniel Dennett.

Atheism isn't a particularly new idea. The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus long ago suggested it would be best to ignore all the various gods and goddesses, since the universe was nothing but atoms and void.

But the intrusion of religion into the political sphere in the United States helped launch New Atheism, Dennett told Andrew Brown of the Guardian.

"It was important to turn the tide," he continued. "And I think we've done that. I'm really very proud to say that New Atheism has changed the face of America as far as expression of religious belief or disbelief."

Dennett admitted that terms like "Brights" never caught on. The term was coined to describe those who had a wholly naturalistic rather than supernatural worldview.

"The numbers are growing," Dennett said. "What we gave them was permission to declare their lack of interest in religion, which is something that people where rather afraid to do before we wrote our books."

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by The Guardian, below: