ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to study the politics of new atheism. It contextualises analysis by examining some of the modern historical ways in which atheism has been expressed politically, or in which atheism has been tied to a broader political and often anti-religious agenda. The chapter brings out some of the sheer variety of political views which have been tied to atheism. It discusses by reflecting on the variety of associations between atheism and political projects. Esoteric atheism has arguably had influence within the political outlook of some prominent thinkers, particularly the neo-conservative political movement. The jailing of political dissidents during the 'Red Scare' period of the First World War provoked civil libertarians and secularists to form the American Civil Liberties Union. For Rand and Objectivists, capitalism is the only social system in which individuals have been treated as sovereign, as it recognises individual rights, including property rights.
