I just read an article in WitchVox ( Becoming Disenchanted with Wicca ) in which the author, under the mask of issues with the superstitions of Wicca and paganism and a general slam against religion, encourages Wiccans to "Embrace the new atheists (Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett) . Before you dismiss them, read their works."

I have read Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris. Generally, I find their atheistic fundamentalism to be on a par with monotheistic fundamentalism. And I have occasionally thought to myself 'how would I, as a Wiccan, answer their critiques and criticisms?" Of course, I usually have to run off to do and see and be somewhere else.

Now, however, I will have to sit down and see how I would answer of some their ideas. Some, like the importance of science and reason, are not antithetical to wiccan and pagan thought. But some, such as the purely materialist and mechanistic view of the universe, are certainly not part of my belief system.

I am going to think about a response to the article on WitchVox. Now, one of the criticisms of the New Atheism and its arguments against religion (and the author of the article seems to forget that Dawkins and Harris are against ANY religion, even one that is based solely on the Jungian idea of archetypes) is that the paradigms or 'field' in which the 'con' and 'pro' arguments do not overlap. There is some validity to that observation. But I feel that a response can be made.

I don't know when I will have that response ready, it will take quite a bit of thought, but I will do it.