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Haidt Crimes: In Defense of the New Atheism

What follows is a review and somewhat heated criticism of the essay, "Moral Psychology and the Misunderstanding of Religion ", by Jonathan Haidt, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. Those accused of the "misunderstanding" mentioned in its title are the "new atheists" (though this fact does not become clear until about two-thirds of the way through Haidt's rather lengthy exposition.) The basic idea is that the new atheists are too morally motivated (i.e., too emotional) to adhere to the scientific principles they exhalt. Interestingly, Haidt isn't out to criticize atheism. He is a self-professed atheist. What he is after is a more tolorant view of religion. His main point (which he doesn't state until the very end of the essay) is that we should regard "every longstanding ideology and way of life" as having some "moral wisdom" to impart. Bizarrely, everything written up until the explicit st