Actually, there was a subset of newly popular atheists that started giving themselves nicknames and considering themselves a 'group'. It did not last long.
Found this:
The term began getting attention in the early '00s as a pejorative label used by
theists and agnostics for outspoken atheists. Critics assumed
new atheism was a sort of fad or that it was arrived at through ill-reasoned, irrational, or unsound means.
Though atheists considered
new atheists at first resisted the term, eventually some of those atheists grudgingly accepted the term as a convenient label for atheists such as themselves who take part in openly refuting, mocking, and answering contemporary challenges to humane treatment of people presented by religions and to threats to justice, equality, democracy, free speech, and secularism in the world as posed by theism. So it is that the term
New Atheistsgenerally encompasses atheists who have a gauche predilection for stating in public that they are, in fact, atheists, and worse, arguing publicly for their point of view, and worse still, drawing large audiences in doing so whether that be on a website, a blog, a podcast or through a book, news media appearances, or video productions. The term
New Atheist is somewhat unevenly embraced by those so described.
Also:
The traditionally pointed to origin of this label for atheists is
an October 22, 2006 article in Wired magazine by Gary Wolf currently titled "The Church of the Non-Believers" (originally titled
"Battle of the New Atheism" according to the
Richard Dawkins website, and likewise
discussed under that title on Pharyngula) that explicitly mentions Richard Dawkins,
Sam Harris, and
Daniel Dennett as the prototypical New Atheists. However, the exact origins of the label itself are murky as are the connections between people using the term pejoratively. Indeed, the labelling of prominent contemporary atheists as
new appears to be a perennial theme amongst atheism's critics, pushing one atheist,
Luke Muehlhauser of Common Sense Atheism to go so far as to label this the
second New Atheism as opposed to the
firstNew Atheism of the '70s and '80s. In fact, other incidents where a person used the term
New Atheism or
New Atheist that predate Gary Wolf's
Wired article are:
- 1966: David Haxton Carswell Read published Whose God is Dead: The Challenge of the New Atheism which,according to blogger Arizona Atheist, cries foul at the atheists of the '60s who want to build up the wall of separation between church and state and create a more secular society, and then claims atheists and theists are at a draw since neither can conclusively prove that there is or isn't a god.
- 1981: Michael Azkoul publishes Anti-Christianity: the New Atheism which, according to reviewer zonaras at Amazon.com, opposes "19th century... atheistic humanism" from an Eastern Orthodox Christian perspective.
- 1986: Robert Morey publishes The New Atheism and the Erosion of Freedom for the first time in which he launches a screed against the outspoken atheists of the '60s, '70s, and '80s (and later in various revisions) all of which reflect the same old arguments trotted out against atheists today.
- 2001: Richard Weinstein publishes New Atheist Majick, a little heard of philosophy book that seems to be a self help course on atheist metaphysics.
- April 18, 2006: Catholic Bishop Edward K. Braxton gives a keynote speech at the National Catholic Educational Association's 103rd Annual Convention titled, "Charting a Course for the Future: The Need for a New Apologetic", in which he laments "The New Atheism" and the ease at which children on the Internet can run across the writings of Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and the like along with other writings critical of Christianity that, in turn, religious apologists will be hard pressed and even unable to counter when asked about by an inquisitive child. Braxton's speech was noted at Pharyngula on April 20, 2006 by wamba.
So basically an externally imposed label.
