USA Today reports on the new new atheists:
[Atheists] can be a "blessing" for believers, said Samir Selmanovic, co-founder and co-leader of New York's interreligious Faith House Manhattan and author of It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. Atheists are "God's whistle-blowers," who keep believers honest and focused on the here-and-now, Selmanovic said. "Atheism at its best grabs us by the collar and throws us to the ground, demanding to see lives well lived, forcing us to dig deeper and live up to the best of our own religions," he writes.