John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, explored current anti-theistic sentiments at a Theos event last night.

The evening, organised in partnership with LICC, was entitled 'The New Atheism: Where has it come from and where is it going?'

Drawing on historical examples, Professor Gray argued that there is little that is genuinely new in contemporary atheistic thinking. The great atheistic projects of the past had collapsed and societies were now undergoing a process of de-secularisation.

The New Atheism, argued Professor Gray, was a media phenomenon, recycling the positivism of the 19th century and early 20th centuries.

A Times’ podcast of Professor Gray's can be accessed here.