In a punch-up, who do you back-famed magicians Penn & Teller, or God? Welcome to what Gary Wolf of Wired, has sensationally dubbed “the New Atheism.”Who are the New Atheists? The men who Wolf pins the name to (Penn & Teller, have a separate section devoted to their godlessness) are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett, all of whom have recently released books questioning the sanctity of religious faith.

“They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God,” Wolf writes. “[For the New Atheists], religion is not only wrong; it’s evil.”

That’s not all. The New Atheism wants all you agnostics, deists, skeptics, and other assorted fence-sitters to join their battle against what they see as the virulent supernatural crutch of religion.

Atheism is defined as a disbelief in the existence of God(s) and it’s nothing new. Indeed, the non-believer roll call is a lengthy one. In addition to Penn & Teller (who sometimes write “There is No God” instead of their autograph), Barry Manilow, Dave Barry, John Lennon, Frida Kahlo, Gorbachev, Stephen Hawking, Freud, Bjork, and Keanu Reeves are (or were) all atheists. And this list just scratches the surface of declared atheists whom you’ve heard of.

The New Atheism described by Wolf is something else entirely. While traditional atheism is content with denying belief in God, the new breed is almost evangelical. It is safe to assume that its teachings will alienate a fair number of the less vehement non-believers, who may not like or believe in religion but can respect those who do.

The most prominent mouthpiece of the New Atheists is Dawkins, a renowned evolutionary biologist, recent author of the best-selling The God Delusion and a ferociously evangelical proponent of atheism.

In The God Delusion, Dawkins writes, “As long as we accept the principle that religious faith must be respected simply because it is religious faith, it is hard to withhold respect from the faith of Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers.”

“Evangelism is a moral imperative [for Dawkins],” writes Wolf. “[He] does not merely disagree with religious myths. He disagrees with tolerating them, with cooperating in their colonization of the brains of innocent tykes.”

This all sounds rather harsh. However, it is important to remember that the New Atheists are almost all Western scientists. Their principal interactions with the faithful have been with the puerile intelligent design and creationist movements and the vicious terrorist attacks on the London Underground and 9/11.

The extremism of the New Atheists is in part a reaction to these threats to life, limb and scientific empirical teaching represented by religious fundamentalists from George Bush to Osama Bin Laden.

While the New Atheists can be rather nasty, even boorish, they also haven’t killed anyone. Which is more then can be said for other fundamentalists.

Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist, staunch opponent of creationism and an atheist, has argued against the New Atheism and its invocations of black and white morality.

“I think we need to respect people’s philosophical notions unless those notions are wrong,” Krauss said. “The Earth isn’t 6,000 years old. [But] Science doesn’t make it impossible to believe in God. We should recognize that fact and live with it and stop being so pompous about it.”

Evangelizing about anything is a bore. It won’t get you invited to parties. As an atheist, I do not want a bunch of Christian missionaries breathing down my neck, trying to convert me every other minute (although that doesn’t stop them from trying). It’s safe to assume religious folks don’t want us non-believers yelling at them about how idiotic their beliefs are. So don’t do it. It’s rude. If believers change their minds of their own volition, great. If not, that’s fine too. The vast majority of them are good people anyway.

Atheism isn’t going anywhere. Neither is religion. I guess we all just have to learn to live with each other.