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Pagan Christmas, Again.

Pagan Christmas, Again.

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Every year, without fail, we find endless articles, memes and claims on social media about the supposed “pagan origins” of Christmas. As with Halloween and Easter, anti-theist activists find themselves in furious agreement with neo-pagans and even some evangelical Christians that the date and virtually all the main customs and traditions of Christmas are actually pagan. Pop history articles and books are full of these breathlessly confident claims. Except, in fact, very little about Christmas is ancient, less still is…

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Joe Wilson
Interview – Joseph A.P. Wilson on Was Paul Sexist?

Interview – Joseph A.P. Wilson on Was Paul Sexist?

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Both conservative Christians and many atheist activists point to 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and note how Paul forbids women to speak in church. The Christians do this to maintain that women should not preach and cannot be pastors or priests. The atheists usually do so to hold this up as evidence that Paul was a misogynist and Christianity is inherently sexist. But did Paul really write this? And was it Christianity which made the Greco-Roman world less egalitarian or was it actually…

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Cats and the Black Death
Cats and the Black Death

Cats and the Black Death

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Some atheists and even some prominent scientists claim that the Black Death was caused or at least made worse by a wholesale massacre of cats ordered by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. But is this true? And where did this strange story come from? In this episode on the History for Atheists video channel we look at this claim and several others associated with it, examine the history of the pandemic of the 1340s known as the Black…

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How History is Done
How History is Done

How History is Done

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For over seven years now I have used History for Atheists to debunk bad historical arguments, historical myths, pseudo history and fringe historical claims used by many of my fellow atheists. Long before I began this site and its attendant video channel and podcast, I have found myself debunking bad history and fringe claims used by ideologues of various stripes: Christians, Muslims, nationalists, fascists, socialists, New Agers and contrarians. After well over three decades of this (admittedly rather odd) pastime,…

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Pagan Halloween?

Pagan Halloween?

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The idea that all the traditional holidays and festivals of the year are “pagan” in origin and were simply “stolen by the Church” is one that has permeated popular culture and is repeated without question in newspaper, magazine and online articles. Unfortunately, many anti-theistic polemicists cannot resist a chance to get in a jab at any aspect of Christianity being “really pagan”, so every October we see supposed rationalists parroting pseudo history about the “pagan origins of Halloween”, with no…

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Hitler
Hitler: Atheist, Pagan or Christian?

Hitler: Atheist, Pagan or Christian?

Comments 164 comments

Many ideologues want the world’s most reviled man to belong to “the other side”. There are some Christians who claim Hitler was a pagan who led an “atheistic regime” or even that he was an atheist himself. On the other hand, many atheists claim he was a devout Catholic or at least some kind of Christian who was cosy with the churches. So what is true? Was Adolf Hitler an atheist, a neo-pagan occultist or a devout Christian? Or was…

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Great Library 2
The Great Library of Alexandria – Part Two

The Great Library of Alexandria – Part Two

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Here is the second part of my episode on the myths surrounding the Great Library of Alexandria on the History for Atheists video channel. In Part Two we look at how the Great Library actually came to an end and how the myth that it was “burned down by Christians” arose. Please like and subscribe to the channel if you find this video useful. And for those who prefer the audio version, the Podcast edition is now up on Buzzsprout…

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Soviet Atheism
The Great Myths 10: Soviet Atheism

The Great Myths 10: Soviet Atheism

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Christian apologists try to claim the Soviet regime was murderous because it was atheistic. To counter this, New Atheists have tried to argue atheism had nothing to do with any mass murder and oppression in the Soviet Union. Both arguments are wrong, but the New Atheist one involves contorted sophistry along with some quite remarkable distortion of historical facts. In March 2001 the Taliban regime in Afghanistan shocked the world by undertaking a weeks-long program of destruction to, literally, deface…

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Pagan Christmas

Pagan Christmas

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It is traditional that the media be filled with pseudo historical nonsense about the pagan elements of Christmas at this time of year. But atheists who claim to be “working for a more rational world” really should be more careful than harried journalists when presenting the “real history” of the season. Unfortunately, they almost never are. As I have noted here before, the media loves giving dubious background stories on traditions and festivals. At Christmas, it fills column inches or…

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Hypatia
The Great Myths 9: Hypatia of Alexandria

The Great Myths 9: Hypatia of Alexandria

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Hypatia of Alexandria sits alongside Galileo and Giordano Bruno as something of a historical trinity in anti-theistic mythology. She is depicted as a martyr of science and reason, wickedly murdered by religious fanatics, a symbol of lost learning and of the beginning of the Dark Ages. But the distorted story that makes up her modern myth bears little resemblance to actual history and ignores the key contexts for both her life and her assassination. Ever since her violent death in…

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