Daniel C. Dennett and the new atheism

This thesis is about the evolutionist approach of Daniel C. Dennett, one of the representatives of new atheism, regarding consciousness and religion. New atheism is a type of atheism known today for its naturalistic, evolutionist approaches and harsh attitudes towards religion and the idea of God. In this study, firstly, in the first part, what new atheism is, its basic claims and its prominent representatives are examined. Then, Dennett's understanding of consciousness is explained in the second chapter. Dennett interprets the mind in a materialist way, unlike dualist understandings that accept the soul or mind as a separate metaphysical substance. According to his hetero-phenomenological approach, mind is nothing but the functional activities of the brain. Thus, with this view, he thinks that by eliminating the mystery of consciousness, he will close the paths to the existence of God and the soul. In the last section, Dennett's evolutionist approach to religion is examined. Dennett claims that religion is a natural phenomenon and can be explained scientifically. He bases this on the 'meme theory' of R. Dawkins, one of the new atheists. According to them, just as genes can replicate themselves, memes, as some social cultural units, can also replicate themselves. Religion has also been passed down through generations in this way. Therefore, religion does not actually have any truth and is one of the harmful memes that needs to be eliminated. All of these make Dennett's theory of consciousness and religion a field of study in the philosophy of religion, even though he claims to approach the issue in a scientific manner. In the study, it was also seen that Dennett's atheist theory of consciousness and religion was criticized in many ways. It has been seen that thinkers such as J. Searle and R. Swinburne criticized the reductionism of Dennett's theory of consciousness. It has also been noticed that there are criticisms that his approach to religion is quite shallow and that the meme theory does not reflect reality exactly. As a result of all this, it has been concluded that the judgments made by the new atheism about religion and God with their naturalist scientist attitudes, based on Dennett's views, are controversial. Keywords: Philosophy of Religion, New Atheism, Daniel C. Dennett, Evolution, Consciousness, Memes.