The New Outspoken Atheism and Education

In this essay, Nel Noddings calls upon U.S. public schools to equip students with a more nuanced understanding of religious vocabulary, history, and ideas. Examining recent books by outspoken atheists including Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, Noddings argues that schools should help students “communicate across the chasm” between belief and unbelief in an effort to prepare a more civil and informed citizenry. In a wide-ranging discussion of religious vocabulary, belief, logic, morality, and aesthetics, she illustrates ways in which schools can incorporate religious literacy across the curriculum and foster a rich understanding of religious history and ideas among the students they serve.


Nel Noddings is the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University. She has authored many books, including several foundational texts on the ethics of caring, such as Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (1984), The Challenge to Care in Schools (1992), and, most recently, Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Should Teach (2006). Her work on religion and education includes Women and Evil (1989) and Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief (1993). Noddings is a former New Jersey public school teacher and administrator and is a past president of the National Academy of Education, the Philosophy of Education Society, and the John Dewey Society.