Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Lore & Background

In John's revelation the first horseman rides a white horse, carries a bow, and is given a crown as a figure of conquest, perhaps invoking the Antichrist. The second carries a sword and rides a red horse as the creator of war, conflict, and strife. The third, a food merchant, rides a black horse symbolizing famine and carries a pair of scales. The fourth and final horse is pale, upon it rides Death, accompanied by Hades. 'They were given authority over a quarter of the Earth, to kill with sword, famine and plague, and by means of the beasts of the Earth.' Christianity typically interprets the Four Horsemen as a vision of harbingers of the Last Judgment, setting a divine end-time upon the world.

Reader's Guide

The Four Horsemen have been interpreted variously over centuries. Some commentators see the white horseman as Christ, the Gospel, or the Holy Spirit, noting that the color white tends to represent righteousness in the Bible and that Christ is portrayed as a conqueror in other instances. Others, such as C. F. Edward Bishop Elliott interpreted the Four Horsemen as a prophecy of the Roman Empire's subsequent history, with the white horse signifying triumph and prosperity under emperors Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. The red horse, in Elliott's view, depicts civil war beginning under Emperor Commodus. The original Greek does not use the word for 'plague' or 'pestilence' in the passage, simply 'death' (thánatos).

Did You Know?

• The text only provides a name for the fourth horseman, Death; the other three are identified by subsequent commentary as Conquest, War, and Famine.
• The first horseman carries a bow and wears a victor's crown (Greek stéphanos).
• The second horseman's horse is a 'fiery' red (Greek purrhós), and he carries a great sword (mákhaira).

A Label Forged in the Media

The name "New Atheism" did not spring from a manifesto or a formal declaration of principles. Instead, it was coined in 2006 by journalist Gary Wolf in a Wired magazine piece titled "The Church of the Non-Believers," where he framed figures like Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett as unusually aggressive and confrontational in their critiques of religion. Scholars who have since examined the term consistently emphasize its journalistic origins. James E. Taylor notes the label grew out of press commentary on the books of Harris, Dawkins, Dennett, and Hitchens. Christopher R. Cotter described the early scholarly discussion as "largely journalistic," while Thomas Zenk cautioned that the phrase functions as a loose umbrella in public conversation rather than a rigorous analytical category. Steven Kettell went further, arguing the label's spread did more than describe a group—it actively shaped public perception, casting a small circle of atheist writers as both exceptionally militant and philosophically derivative. Notably, the label does not always match how the individuals themselves identify; Dawkins, for instance, expressed uncertainty about what distinguishes "new" atheists from their predecessors.

The 2007 Round Table and a Shared Name

The session was recorded on video and subsequently released under the title "The Four Horsemen," a deliberate nod to the four riders in the Book of Revelation. During the 2010 "God Debate" featuring Hitchens against Dinesh D'Souza, commentators collectively dubbed the group the "Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse," reinforcing the apocalyptic imagery. Dawkins himself acknowledged the horseman branding without objection in the introduction to the tenth-anniversary edition of The God Delusion, though he expressed less enthusiasm for the "new atheist" tag, questioning how his cohort differed from earlier generations of skeptics.

Signature Works and Intellectual Range

Each of the four brought a distinct disciplinary lens to the movement. He followed with Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Waking Up, and shorter works Free Will and Lying. Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, launched the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and published The God Delusion in 2006 after his documentary series The Root of All Evil?; the book held a spot on the New York Times bestseller list for fifty-one weeks. His memoir Hitch-22, a nickname bestowed by Salman Rushdie, appeared in 2010, followed by the essay collection Arguably and the posthumous Mortality. Dennett, a philosopher and cognitive scientist, wrote Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Breaking the Spell, and co-authored Caught in the Pulpit with Linda LaScola, documenting the experiences of clergy who had quietly lost their faith.

Criticism, Loss, and the Movement's Aftermath

The New Atheist label attracted as much criticism as it did attention. Academics and fellow atheists questioned the movement's tone and intellectual depth, with Kettell arguing the media framing painted the group as both combative and philosophically unoriginal. Even in his final months, Hitchens remained publicly engaged, publishing Arguably and speaking out against what he called the "bad taste" of deathbed conversion attempts on the terminally ill. Dennett, meanwhile, channeled his energy into The Clergy Project and research into secret unbelieving ministers, work that extended across multiple denominations. The broader ecosystem included the Secular Coalition for America, the Brights movement, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, all of which the four supported in various capacities.