Library of Antioch
Burning the Library of Antioch?

Burning the Library of Antioch?

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While the myth of Christians “burning the Great Library of Alexandria” is far more widespread, it is often claimed they also destroyed the Library of Antioch. This claim is usually made in passing and with little detail, other than that it was the short-lived Christian emperor Jovian who was the culprit and the fact the library contained “many pagan works” was the alleged motive. So this crime is often mentioned in catalogues of Christian crimes against ancient learning. But what…

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Cosmic Skeptic
Cosmic Skeptic Bungles Galileo

Cosmic Skeptic Bungles Galileo

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The young sceptic Alex O’Connor of the Cosmic Skeptic video channel has built a substantial audience discussing theological and philosophical questions from an atheistic and rationalist perspective. But when he tries to discuss history, he is on unsure ground and two forays onto the complex subject of the Galileo Affair have seen him present bungled misapprehensions and some outright pseudo historical fantasy to his followers. The content creator Alex O’Connor is a 23 year old recent graduate from Oxford who…

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Interview - The Conflict Thesis
Interview – David Hutchings & James C. Ungureanu on the Conflict Thesis

Interview – David Hutchings & James C. Ungureanu on the Conflict Thesis

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My guests today are David Hutchings and James C. Ungureanu, co-authors of Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World. David is a physicist, science teacher and writer and James is a historian of science and religion. In this interview we discuss their book and the origin and impact of the Conflict Thesis – the pervasive but erroneous idea that religion and science have always been in conflict down the ages. To buy the book: Of…

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Is Easter Pagan?
Is Easter Pagan?

Is Easter Pagan?

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Every year fundamentalist Christians, New Agers, neo-pagans and many atheists loudly agree that Easter was not originally a Christian feast and was a pagan fertility festival stolen by Christianity. Unfortunately, despite what endless memes and pop history articles claim, this idea is complete nonsense. So is the claim that Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are also originally pagan. It is rather ironic that a set of false historical claims about the origin of Easter and its customs are propagated…

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Miracles
Jesus Mythicism 8: Jesus, History and Miracles

Jesus Mythicism 8: Jesus, History and Miracles

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There is a common line of argument among the more naïve believers in Jesus Mythicism that goes “the stories of Jesus are full of miracles and other non-historical elements. So if any of them are not historical, why not all of them?” This all-or-nothing thinking is based on the idea that if any part of these accounts can be concluded to be not historical, this means the rest of them are as well: “it’s all made up”. But even in…

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Lambert
Interview – Derek Lambert on Jesus Mythicism

Interview – Derek Lambert on Jesus Mythicism

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My latest guest is Derek Lambert, the presenter of the excellent Mythvision video channel and podcast. Derek has been kind enough to have me on his channel several times over the last two years to discuss atheist bad history in general and Jesus Mythicism in particular. But today we are going to hear from Derek about his very interesting personal journey regarding his thoughts and conclusions about the historical Jesus. As he’ll detail for us, Derek began as a fundamentalist…

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Golden Orrery
The Crappy Golden Orrery Award 2021

The Crappy Golden Orrery Award 2021

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To finish 2021, here is my annual year in review survey of History for Atheists. But I also detail the nominees for the Crappy Golden Orrery Award for the most egregious, boneheaded and/or stupid bad history by an atheist for 2021 and announce the winner of this year’s award. Happy New Year to all.

Constantine
Constantine and the Bible

Constantine and the Bible

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The historical myths surrounding the emperor Constantine, his conversion to Christianity and the claim he created the Bible at the Council of Nicaea are persistent and continue to be propagated in popular culture, despite being total nonsense. Unfortunately, leading atheists also perpetuate these silly ideas, with everyone from Richard Dawkins to Joe Rogan insisting that Constantine was not really a Christian, that he pretended to convert for political reasons and that it was he who set the canon of the…

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Halloween
Is Halloween Pagan?

Is Halloween Pagan?

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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. It is perhaps not surprising that harried journalists and underpaid online content writers are uncritical about these claims, but it is more strange that prominent atheists are as well, given they are meant to be sceptics who check their…

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Ted McCormick
Interview: Ted McCormick on Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment

Interview: Ted McCormick on Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment

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My latest guest on the History for Atheists video channel is Associate Professor Ted McCormick. Ted is a specialist in intellectual history and the history of science at Concordia University in Canada. He examines the intersections between science, technology, economy and empire in the early modern era. Recently, he has taken an interest in how the concept of “the Enlightenment” has been taken up as something of an ideological cause by some popular writers. In particular he has critiqued the…

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