Not of the Hitchens-Dawkins-Harris variety, but of the seventeenth century variety. The four figures most often attacked for formulating a thoroughgoing atheistic perspective were Spinoza (for his biblical work as well as his metaphysics), Hobbes, La Peyrere (author of Pre-Adamites ), and Lodewijk Meyer (author of Philosophia Scripturae Interpres ).

At a conference held in Rostock, Germany, in 1702, traditional Aristotelian anti-Cartesians treated four principle claims against the new atheists: the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch; the Scriptures do not approve ignorant opinions of common people; philosophy is not the interpreter of Scripture; and the literal meaning of the Bible is valid.