If Rev. Ed Wynne has his druthers, his class “Is the ‘New Atheism’ Really New?” will include atheists, people with a fundamentalist faith and others who fall in between.

A diversity of viewpoints makes for exchanges that generate understanding, and watching people with different points of view gain a better appreciation of each other’s perspective is one of Wynne’s favorite things about teaching the Coastal Senior College course.

“All of the students bring their whole life experiences to the class,” said Wynne, an ordained United Methodist minister who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, a master’s degree in divinity and a doctorate in religious education. “The selfish reason I teach Coastal Senior College is that I always learn more than my students,” Wynne said.

Wynne officially retired from the ministry in 1997 but stays more than busy filling in at area churches and volunteering; he is chairman of the Pastoral Care Committee at LincolnHealth, Miles Campus, among other responsibilities.

In addition, he is a perennially popular instructor with Coastal Senior College. This is the second time he has taught a course on the “new atheism,” but the first time the course has been offered at St. Andrews Village.

Wynne said so much has happened in the past five years in terms of the public discussions and writings about atheism that none of the suggested reading assignments from the 2009 class are on the current course list.

Increasingly, the “new atheism” is sounding more like a fundamentalist religion in that many atheists are advocating for actively opposing religion, or at least religious points of view, Wynne said.

Victor Stenger, one of the more prominent atheist writers, calls for atheists to confront religion because he says religion is holding society back from advancing at a time when humanity must address severe ills, including social warming and overpopulation.

“The magical thinking that becomes deeply ingrained whenever faith rules over facts warps all areas of life. It instills superficial beliefs which, having been adopted without reason, cannot be displaced by reason,” said Stenger in “The Fall of Foolish Faith,” a talk posted on his website at the University of Colorado.

Each class will last two hours with a break in the middle. Class will largely consist of discussion of the assigned reading material.

The course will take place on eight Tuesdays, March 18 through May 6, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. For more information or to register, please call Coastal Senior College at 1-800-286-1594, or go to www.coastalseniorcollege.org.

For more information about St. Andrews Village, please call 207-633-0920.

St. Andrews Village is located on Emery Lane in Boothbay Harbor, off Route 27, just south of the Boothbay Region High School.