The End Is Nigh: Failed Doomsday Prophecies (1/?)

365 CE

Hilary of Poitiers, an early French bishop, says the end of the world will happen that year (pg. 30)

Theists: Atheism is a totally new phenomenon. If it weren't we'd have historical evidence of it!

Me: You mean like Diagoras of Mellos in 5th century BCE, that one Ancient Roman tombstone*, Omar Khayyam in 1100s Iran, Menocchio in 1500s Italy, Giulio Cesare Vanini in 1619, Kazimierz Łyszczyński in 1600s Poland, Thomas Aikenhead in 1600s Scotland, and Percy Shelley in 1817?

Theists: Um...

Me: Moreover, do you know what all but 2 of these 8 examples have in common? They were all persecuted for being atheists. Atheists only show up in large numbers in history recently because before it wasn't safe to come out.

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* "Do not pass my epitaph, traveller

But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your own way

There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon

No caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus

All we who are dead below

Have become bone and ashes but nothing else

I have spoken to you honestly, go on traveller

Least even while dead I seem talkative to you"

“Atheists Have Nothing to Complain About” (4/?)

Toulouse, France, February 9, 1619

Giulio Cesare Vanini denies the immortality of the soul, says he believes that humans evolved from apes*, and insists that religious teachings are false. 

He flees his native Italy due to safety concerns, travelling to France under a pseudonym, and is eventually caught in Toulouse.

He has his tongue cut out, is strangled, and then burned to death (the typical sentence for atheists and blasphemers at the time).

* He wasn’t wrong. 

Humans are apes which descended from apes. We are one of the 5 Great Ape species:

There’s DNA evidence up the wazoo to prove this (and that’s not counting the massive mountain of fossil evidence!)