At their peril, liberal elites ignore traditional theological belief.

In the first decade of the 21st century, New Atheism was all the rage. Students, with little appetite for Aristotle, Aquinas, or Augustine, devoured the pop philosophies and polemics of Harris, Hitchens, and Dawkins. And some 2,000 years of philosophical endeavor and inquiry — “Is there a God?” — was dismissed as a dumb question

Despite the arrogance behind it, the sentiment found mass appeal. Book tours and debates were dedicated to the cause. Professors hurled insults and accusations at “organized religion.” Atheism was cool; religion was not. In America, TV shows specifically designed to expose and ridicule creationist bumpkins were aired. In Britain, ad campaigns on buses (“There probably is no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life”) sought to dissuade the population from God-fearing.

Why this militancy was so urgent, however, remains unclear. In the West the purging of Judeo-Christian influence from the academy, media, and the entertainment industries had been underway for decades, if not centuries. In the 19th century, industrialization and the intellectual tour de force of Darwin, Nietchze, Freud, Marx, et al., had sown the seeds of doubt, which two world wars later were watered with blood.

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