History for Atheists

The Great Myths 13: The Renaissance Myth

August 28, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 83 comments

Many of my fellow atheists operate with a simplistic children’s picture book view of the past. This is one where the glories of Greece and Rome are destroyed and suppressed by the Medieval Church, but civilisation is saved by the geniuses of the Renaissance, whose revival of ancient thought, critical analysis and radical new thinking establishes most of what we value today. This conception of the Renaissance as a dramatic and revolutionary break with the medieval world is actually Modernity’s…

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Interview: Thony Christie on the Galileo Affair

July 31, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 18 comments

This is a long-awaited addition to the History for Atheists video channel – my long and detailed interview with historian of science, Thony Christie. Thony is an independent scholar based in Germany who also the author of the superb Renaissance Mathematicus blog. His knowledge of the history of Early Modern science is vast and so he is the perfect person to give us a detailed overview of what happened and, more importantly, what did not happen in the dispute between Galileo and…

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Hitler: Atheist, Pagan or Christian?

July 14, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 162 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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The Great Library of Alexandria – Part Two

June 13, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 2 comments

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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The Great Myths 12: Religious Wars and Violence

May 18, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 151 comments

That religion is uniquely prone to violence is a truism anti-theistic atheists assume almost without question. The cliché that more people have died in wars over religion than any other cause is a unassailable dictum among atheist activists, and religious violence is a driving motivation for their zealotry. But, on closer inspection, this idea becomes increasingly incoherent and actually leads several New Atheists into some ethically paradoxical positions. The idea that religion is essentially and particularly violent is a founding…

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The Great Library of Alexandria – Part One

April 25, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 6 comments

The latest video on the History for Atheists video channel is Part One of a two-part episode on the Great Library of Alexandria. What was the Great Library and why does it feature in some anti-religious rhetoric? In this first part we will examine some of the misconceptions about the Great Library, look at what it was and – more importantly – what it was not. And in the upcoming second part, we will explore how the Great Library came…

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The Great Myths 11: Biblical Literalism

March 27, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 136 comments

It is assumed in much anti-theistic polemic that the Bible has traditionally always been interpreted literally. A lot of criticism of believers is based on how irrational, impossible and anti-scientific such a reading of the Bible has to be and how the current literalism of many fundamentalist Christians simply reflects how the Bible has always been read, with non-literal interpretations simply a modern rear-guard attempt to reconcile the Bible with current understandings of the world. But this is not true….

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The History for Atheists Podcast is Launched

March 23, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 3 comments

As promised, I’ve now launched a History for Atheists podcast, which has audio versions of the videos on the History for Atheists video channel. The podcast is aimed at those who prefer to listen to content on the go rather than watching a video. The History for Atheists podcast is currently available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Podchaser, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Deezer, Listen Notes, Player FM and Podcast Index, and should soon be available on Amazon Music and Pandora. Or you can listen to all current episodes on…

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Interview: Tom Holland on “Dominion”

March 16, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 24 comments

For my latest interview on the History for Atheists video channel I am joined by best-selling history writer Tom Holland to discuss his book Dominion (2020). Tom is the author of a number of books, including Rubicon (2003), Persian Fire (2005) and Millennium (2008). In his latest work Holland set out to explore why the ancient world seems so alien to us when examined closely and came to the provocative conclusion that we live in a culture that has been…

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The History for Atheists Video Channel is Live

February 28, 2021 Tim O'Neill Comments 15 comments

After a long gestation, the History for Atheists video channel is now up and running. For the last five years I have written fairly regular articles here at History for Atheists, with the aim of providing substance and depth on topics that are, all too often, covered in a manner that is superficial and usually wrong. But not everyone reads 10,000 word articles, so I have launched this accompanying video channel to cover most of the same subjects. The channel…

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