About History for Atheists

What is “History for Atheists”?

This blog is for articles, book reviews and critiques relating to “New Atheist Bad History” – the misuse of history and the use of biased, erroneous or distorted pseudo history by anti-theistic atheists. The author is an atheist himself so no, this is not some theist apologetics blog. It is simply an attempt to call out and correct the misuse of history, because rationalists should not base their arguments on errors and distortions. Among the myths and pseudo historical theories that this blog tackles are:

That there was no historical Jesus at all and that Christianity arose out of a belief in a purely mythic/celestial being, not a historical Jewish preacher
That Christianity caused the “Dark Ages” by systematically destroying almost all ancient Greco-Roman learning,
That Christians burned down the Great Library of Alexandria and that Hypatia of Alexandria was murdered because of a Christian hatred of science
That pagan Greco_Roman society was rational and scientific and fairly non-religious and was on the brink of a scientific and technological revolution
That Constantine was a crypto-pagan who adopted Christianity as a cynical political ploy (and he personally created the Bible)
That Christianity somehow held back technology and we’d all be living on Mars by now if it wasn’t for the “Dark Ages”
That Medieval Europe was a theocracy ruled by the Church, which wielded supreme power and killed anyone who questioned any aspect of its teachings
That scientists were oppressed during the Middle Ages and science stagnated completely until “the Renaissance”
That “the Inquisition” was a kind of Europe-wide medieval Gestapo and that the medieval Church was an all-powerful totalitarian theocracy
That Giordano Bruno was a wise and brave astronomer and cosmologist who was burned at the stake because the Church hated science
That the Galileo Affair was a straightforward case of religion ignoring evidence and trying to suppress scientific advancement
That Pope Pius XII was a friend and ally of the Nazis who turned a blind eye to the Holocaust and helped Nazis escape justice

The tone of this blog tends to range from amused exasperation to mild scorn, though it will aim to go into sufficient technical detail, scholarly analysis and primary evidence to explain why the bad history in question is flawed. Comments on posts are welcome, though the author gives back what he gets, so civil comments will get civil replies and uncivil ones will definitely not. Be warned.