New Atheism gurus found a College dedicated to "logic and critical thinking" - but apply elsewhere if you use logic to critique atheistic humanism!

It seems that the atheist Professor AC Grayling is in the process of founding a new centre for higher education, called the New College of the Humanities. He has the backing of several other atheists and so-called humanists, including Prof Richard Dawkings - who, although retired as far as I know, plans to teach at the institution. The New College of the Humanities will be based in Bloomsbury, central London, and will in effect be a private college of the University of London, charging annual fees of £18,000 - twice the highest rate soon to be charged by the best state-funded institutions.

According the the Telegraph, "Prof AC Grayling, the philosopher and famed atheist, will be the college's first Master. The university’s other academics, who will all teach, include Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, Sir Christopher Ricks, former Oxford professor of poetry, Steven Pinker, the psychologist, and the historians Niall Ferguson, Sir David Cannadine and Linda Colley." The Financial Times mentions that "Sir Partha Dasgupta, an economist, and [the geneticist] Steve Jones" will also be on the teaching staff. It is stated on its website that the New College of Humanities' lecturer in ethics will be another celebrity atheist, Peter Singer (see Celebrity Atheists - a website for their fans!) - who was once called the "Architect of the Culture of Death" by Donald DeMarco in an article written as a response to the ethicist's book, Rethinking Life and Death.

Needless to say, it didn't take much research to discover that most, if not all, these academics are atheists or prone to anti-theistic sentiments. Grayling and Dawkins seem to have made a career for themselves as leaders of British atheism, whilst Christopher Ricks is listed as an atheist in Wikipedia's "English atheists" article. Steven Pinker's biography on Wikipedia mentions that he never outgrew his "conversion to atheism at 13" and Niall Ferguson says that he "was brought up and remain[s] an atheist" in an interview on the Big Think website. I am also sure that Sir David Cannadine and his wife Linda Colley are prone to atheism. Prof Steven Jones - whom I quite like - is, of course, a well-known supporter of the British Humanist Association. I sincerely hope, then, that none of his colleagues find out that Sir Partha Dasgupta is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences!

The Telegraph goes on to report that the institution "has been established with start-up funds of up £10m from City financiers, a multi-millionaire Swiss couple and the 14 professors themselves.
It is already inviting applications from students who will be able to study degrees – accredited by the University of London – in law, economics, history, philosophy and English literature from autumn 2012. It aims to admit 375 students a year." Applicants to the College will have to be "scientifically literate" - one assumes because the founders believe the myth that only scientifically trained minds can think critically?

Although this college is hoping to attract "gifted" students (most of whom will have to be quite well-off) in order to rival Oxbridge, many will question the motives behind such an institution. Obviously, one of the reasons for establishing the New College of the Humanities is to educate young minds - especially to form them in the rudiments of a truncated world-view in which only atheists are deemed to posses the use of logic or are able to think critically! I can envisage, then, that this College will soon become a seminary for clerics of the New Atheism - men and women convinced that their lack of belief in the transcendent confers upon them some Nietzschean superiority to lower humans. Maybe its motto could be "atheist shall speak unto atheist" or "Ich lehre euch den Übermenschen" (I teach you the Superman)?

Another reason behind the creating of this private institution seems to be financial - one assumes that the investors are hoping for a return on their investment? There is nothing wrong with this, though it does seem to confirm the assumption that atheists, like some liberal people of faith, tend only to be altruistic when paid to be so. Also, as the Classicist Prof Mary Beard argued on her blog in the Times, the proposed New College will be "like is a US style liberal arts college, which can be a very good thing, but is a very different animal indeed from Oxbridge" - i.e. the type of institution it is selling itself as.

In claiming to teach logic and critical thinking whilst being staffed by such a biased group of academics, many will wonder whether Grayling's new university has already lost some credibility as an objective centre for learning. From glancing at the list of those who plan to teach at the institution, lots of whom seem radically committed to the spread of anti-theism, most people will soon realise that the real intention behind this institution is probably not to be a New College of the Humanities, but the New Atheist College of Humanism!