Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) Read Online Free

general and the majority religion in particular tend to call the shots and write the histories, especially prior to the late 18th century. Add to that the fact that atheism (or blasphemy) has often been punishable by imprisonment or death, and you can see why atheists in certain times and places tend to whisper.
    Ancient and medieval eras
    But the voices are there, including some in the distant past and in cultures both in and out of Europe. In the chapters in Part II of this book, you can meet
    Atheists in ancient China, where atheism was a welcome part of the conversation among philosophers
    Atheists in ancient and medieval India, including religions with completely godless branches
    Atheists in ancient Greece, where they were seldom welcome
    Religious skeptics in early Islam who called Muhammad a liar
    A hero in 13th century Icelandic legend who said, “It is folly to believe in gods” — then lived happily ever after anyway
    Three 14th century French villagers whose disbelief was ferreted out by a shocked bishop during the Inquisition
    The thread of atheism in the ancient and medieval world is a story that very few people know. Even atheists are usually in the dark about this part of their history. Read Chapters 4 and 5 , and then share them with an atheist you love.
    The Enlightenment
    By the early 18th century, disbelief was gathering serious steam in Europe. Secret documents challenging religious belief had been circulating for 50 years, just steps ahead of the censors. French parishioners going through the papers of their Catholic priest who died in 1729 found copies of a book, written by the priest for them, telling how much he detested and disbelieved the religion he’d taught them for 40 years.
    By the end of the century, philosophers in France, Germany, and England were openly challenging religious power and ideas and establishing modern concepts of human rights and individual liberty. It all culminated, for better and worse, in the French Revolution, when a brief flirtation with an atheist state was followed by the Cult of the Supreme Being and the Reign of Terror — at which point atheism went back underground for a bit. (For more on this, refer to Chapter 6 .)
    The 19th century
    The idea that God didn’t really exist never completely went away, even when someone like Napoleon shut it down for a while. It was always bubbling under the surface and occasionally shooting out sideways through someone who just couldn’t stand to keep it quiet.
    The poet Percy Shelley proved to be one such person, getting himself kicked out of Oxford in 1811 for expressing an atheist opinion. Then the early feminists of England and the United States made it plenty clear that they considered religion to be a stumbling block in the way of women’s rights.
    Science really put the wind in the sails of atheism in the 19th century. By paying close attention to the natural world, Darwin turned himself from a minister in training to an agnostic and solved the complexity problem that prevented so many people from letting go of God. As the biologist Richard Dawkins once said, atheism might have been possible before Darwin, but Darwin made it possible to be an “intellectually fulfilled atheist.” But a flurry of activity after Darwin’s death tried to hide his loss of faith, including some selective slicing and dicing of his autobiography and a false deathbed conversion story dreamt up by a British evangelist with little respect for the Ninth Commandment.
    In Darwin’s wake, a golden age of freethought opened up in the United States and the United Kingdom. It’s all laid out for your enjoyment in Chapter 7 .
    The 20th century
    Atheism also doesn’t guarantee good behavior any more than religion does, and “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” becomes a tragically apt phrase in the 20th century. There are plenty of examples of corruption and immorality in positions of unchecked power, both by atheists (such as Mao Zedong in China,