https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/disbelieve-it-or-not-ancient-history-suggests-that-atheism-is-as-natural-to-humans-as-religion
>Despite being written out of large parts of history, atheists thrived in the polytheistic societies of the ancient world – raising considerable doubts about whether humans really are “wired” for religion – a new study suggests.
>The claim is the central proposition of a new book by Tim Whitmarsh, Professor of Greek Culture and a Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge. In it, he suggests that atheism – which is typically seen as a modern phenomenon – was not just common in ancient Greece and pre-Christian Rome, but probably flourished more in those societies than in most civilisations since.
>“We tend to see atheism as an idea that has only recently emerged in secular Western societies,” Whitmarsh said. “The rhetoric used to describe it is hyper-modern. In fact, early societies were far more capable than many since of containing atheism within the spectrum of what they considered normal.”
>The closest the Greeks got to a unifying sacred text were Homer’s epics, which offered no coherent moral vision of the gods, and indeed often portrayed them as immoral. Similarly, there was no specialised clergy telling people how to live: “The idea of a priest telling you what to do was alien to the Greek world,” Whitmarsh said.
>The age of ancient atheism ended, Whitmarsh suggests, because the polytheistic societies that generally tolerated it were replaced by monotheistic imperial forces that demanded an acceptance of one, “true” God.
Christcucks? Where are you?
>>721474
10 dollars that this guy is jewish (by race only of course)
>>721474
>written out of large parts of history
WE
>>721556
how would that affect christianity?
Do you really think Romans believed in their Gods?
>>721584
they did though, everything in their life had some small ritual to a deity
>>721583
The work of making it fit is a task fit for the dogmatic. I just want to watch the routine.
>>721474
You made this thread some days ago, and no cared.
>>721583
You're right, atheism being older than Christianity has no effect on its claims as historical default
>>721599
christianity claims itself as a historical default since when considering that the message of christ was given 2000 years ago?
This is news? The Greeks had the Epicureans and Atomists, the Far East has the Buddhists who range from atheistic to apatheistic, hell C.S. Lewis even says that atheism is not a modern phenomena by any means.
>>721599
I can't decide whether you mean that Christianity or atheism is claimed as the historical default option because both statements are equally retarded
>using modern terms like "atheism" which were non-existent in ancient times
>applying aspects of your own time on the past
>unironically using term "natural" when speaking about societal concepts
Also it's like none of these faggots read Xenophanes. Shit article, shit thread
>>721595
clearly you don't know your subject
>>721569
WUZ
EXTANT
>>721621
by following this man and his son you will learn things about the romans that you've never thought possible
>>721474
“The idea of a priest telling you what to do was alien to the Greek world,”
well, they definitely had diviners and oracles to tell that kind of things to people. Priests told the future or the right decision according the flight of the birds or the entrails of the sacrificial animals and so on.
>>721618
>implying atheist isn't the modern form of atheos
>>721599
dude. youre better than this.
>>721642
The Greeks visited oracles whenever they had doubts about making the right decisions in their lives. This article is idiotic
>>721647
It's a 18th century term, the ancients never used it
>>721618
>The book argues that disbelief is actually “as old as the hills”. Early examples, such as the atheistic writings of Xenophanes of Colophon (c.570-475 BCE) are contemporary with Second Temple-era Judaism, and significantly predate Christianity and Islam. Even Plato, writing in the 4th Century BCE, said that contemporary non-believers were “not the first to have had this view about the gods.”
>>721584
like modern hindus?
Aztecs practised mass human sacrifice to their gods just for cultural reasons. They didn't really believe in them.
>>721669
That's what i implied, Xenophanes wasn't an atheist. He just criticized Homerian deities as immoral and corrupt. He held monotheistic views
>>721695
How do you sacrifice humans to something you don't believe in?
>>721695
nah, it was all hironical, to make of of religious people.
>look at thzipcl, what a madman!
>ahahahah he's getting "sacrificed" to the "gods"!
>yeah man, he's hilarious!
>look at him pretending to be serious while they skin him alive!
>ohoh daaamn!
>>721708
fun of*
>trusting modern historians
They just publish whatever fit their political interests.
Every good history was written before the Annales school ruined the discipline.
>>721474
The thing is misleading as fuck.
a) It isn't a study, it's just a book;
b) it extrapolates how atheists from all polytheistic societies based off of a couple of greeks philosophers. And even those weren't liked by the general population. They were usually just attention whores that pissed most people off with anti-clerical stunts, and their disbelief was usually an extra accusation in political sham trials(see Socrates not believing in “the gods of the city". Incidentally, christians were persecuted for the same reason, and were usually called atheists). So the whole "tolerant free-thinker pagans" falls on it's face as well.
Alongside most of the books ideas regarding pagan cultures, see: >>721608
>>721618 >>721595 >>721642
>>721659
The book premises is idiotically obvious in any case, since atheists are mentioned in the Old Testament.
So, no, YOU WAZN'T ANCIENT FEDORAS
AND SHIET.
The modern atheist community is getting more and more embarassing with their theories. Which is a shame, since 200 years ago, they had guys like Russell.
>>721727
one more reason why more atheist are returning to religion
>>721741
Well. I would argue Plato was religious in an almost monotheistic way, but Aristotle was an atheist.
>>721768
>Aristotle was an atheist.
Yeah no. He was deist, he didn't think the Olympian gods existed or that the One God that does exist can be known in any way.
>Plato was religious in an almost monotheistic way
Monotheism was the norm for the educated in the Classical world long before Christianity.
>>721789
>He was deist
His 'god' was more of a principle to him. Nothing more. I doubt he viewed it any differently than he viewed the forces behind the movements of the sun.
>>721789
one more point for us
>>721794
Well that's arguable, certainly his students were deists and "the God of Aristotle" became a byword for the deist position for later writers.
>>721795
You're still in the negatives I'm afraid
>>721811
protestant cato the elder?
>>721794
Not really. His entire cosmology is that celestial bodies and principles look at each with affection and thus keep the whole thing running harmoniously.
So, while his God was impersonal and distant, it isn't exactly a sterile movement of physics.
>>721825
>>721841
you look like to kind of fellow that would destroy carthago
>>721849
If it's anything like Carthage, it deserves the full force of Rome.
>>721859
i'll send word to some guys in capua to get me some salt
>>721584
Didn't they steal them from the Greeks?
>>723464
More like "they kinda look like ours, if we squint pretty hard, so let's proclaim we worship the same beings under different names"
Syncretism, not appropriation
>>721474
tl;dr Anglo pleb with modern mentality tries to tell me the Greeks didn't really 'believe in getting drunk.'
Stay away from Oxbridge.
>>723486
Meh, the Greeks did that before Romans. Alexander really made syncretism big in Eastern Med.
>>721474
Of course they didnt
In the Pompeii ruins, there was a wall writting with a dude joking about Venus like you would with Miley Cyrus
if you've taken any class is the classics, any professor would tell you the same thing. why is this news?
>>723763
I was going to say that Cambridge Press had a new book to shill but it looks like they didn't publish it. So it's because anything related to atheism will get clicks.
>"true"
That really shows this guy doesn't know shit about Christianity besides some superficial memes
Read Plato's "The Republic"
There's no heaven or hell equivalents to the Inuit.
>>723736
>dude joking about Venus like you would with Miley Cyrus
I think you meant Uranus
>>721666
>who was Theodorus the atheist
>what does αθεος mean
