There seem to be three broad pushes in New Atheism. The first is proselytizing, and I think this is perfectly healthy.

…The second push is PR and consciousness raising, and this is great. From Richard Dawkins’ insistence that people stop referring to children as “Catholic” or “Hindu” children to Hemant Mehta’s really powerful perceptual tool of replacing “atheist” with “Jew” or “Christian” in any statement about atheists to see if it would still pass muster with common tolerance norms. For instance, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ statement that “Atheism leads to brutality” does not jar the typical American brain the way “Judaism leads to brutality” does, and this needs consciousness raising.

But the third push of New Atheism is intolerance of believers.

…The atheists are obviously right in these criticisms, but they’re wrong in the “Ha! I’ve got you now!” that follows.

More here.

Somewhat unrelated, is an atheist as American President more or less likely than a Muslim? A few weeks ago I would have said less. After the August hullabaloo, I say more. A sad statement either way.