Battling the gods : atheism in the ancient world
Tim Whitmarsh (Author)
How new is atheism? Long before the Enlightenment sowed seeds of disbelief in a deeply Christian Europe, atheism was a matter of serious public debate in the Greek world. But history is written by those who prevail, so the lively free-thinking voices of antiquity were mostly suppressed. Tim Whitmarsh brings to life the origins of the secular values at the heart of the modern state, and reveals how atheism and doubt, far from being modern phenomena, have intrigued the human imagination for thousands of years
History
viii, 290 pages ; 20 cm.
9780571279319, 0571279317
1030980286
Archaic Greece : new horizons
Polytheistic Greece ; Good books ; Battling the gods ; The material cosmos
Classical Athens : atheism and oppression. Cause and effect ; "Concerning the gods, I cannot know" ; Playing the gods ; Atheism on trial ; Plato and the atheists
The Hellenistic era : godlike kings and godless philosophers. Gods and kings ; Philosophical atheism ; Epicurus Theomakhos
Rome : the new world order. With gods on our side ; Virtual networks ; Imagine ; Christians, heretics, and other atheists
Originally published: 2016