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History for Atheists
Personal blog · historyforatheists.comhistoryphilosophy
History for Atheists is a personal blog at historyforatheists.com about history and philosophy. Since 2018, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 50 times, most often “The Great Myths”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-06, and you can follow it by feed.
50mentions?
20HN people?
2018–2026first – last linked?
History for Atheists
Most-linked posts?
- /2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-04-24
- /2020/12/pagan-christmas/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-06-14
- The Great Myths2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-08-17
- /2017/11/review-catherine-nixey-the-darkening-age/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-01-18
- Easter, Ishtar, Eostre and Eggs2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-31
- /2017/07/the-destruction-of-the-great-library-of-alexandria/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-04-23
What Hacker News says?
This is such a great thread, I'm excited to begin reading quite a few of the linked blogs (such as this one: https://acoup.blog/ ). These ones are some of my favorites: - www.wall.org/~aron/blog/ (physics, theology, history, philosophy) - http://xahlee.info/ (math, emacs, keyboards, etc.) - https://matt.might.net/articles/ (academy, compsci, etc.) - https://www.joelonsoftware.com/ (programming, companies, etc.) - ht…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Great Myths #16: The Conflict Thesis as a story · 19 points
HN discussionI liked this critique of the history in one of his books (Better angels …): https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2020/07/24/steven-pinkers-... Here are other links that concern another one of his books (Enlightenment …): https://historyforatheists.com/2016/11/the-dark-ages-popery-... (I haven't read any of these reviews though).
Comment linking /2016/11/the-dark-ages-popery-periodisation-and-pejoratives/
on “Losing faith in UX”Submitted The Great Myths as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis is by Graham Oppy. He and Edward Feser, a Cahtholic philosopher / philosophy professor, recent had two online discussions on theology. YouTube links on Feser's site: * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2019/07/debate-with-graham-... * https://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2020/02/discussion-with-gra... There's a lot of 'bad atheism' out there: folks who attack straw man arguments and get basic things wrong (most of t…
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on “Cambridge University Press make their books free until May”Submitted Galileo: History and Myth as a story · 2 points
HN discussion>Intellectuals in Antioch (in ancient Syria) were tortured and beheaded, as were the statues around them. And you use this as an example of religious oppression in medieval Europe (?) Here is a good critical review of the book you're citing: https://historyforatheists.com/2017/11/review-catherine-nixe...
Comment linking /2017/11/review-catherine-nixey-the-darkening-age/
on “A Fifth of China’s Homes Are Empty (2018)”Submitted Easter, Ishtar, Eostre and Eggs as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> It’s pretty astounding It's not astounding at all: the (Catholic) Church very much absorbed quite a lot of Aristotle's meta-physics. He was simply called "The Philosopher" in many writings. And given that "Western values" are basically Christian values: * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-makin... * https://historyforatheists.com/2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/ it's no surprise then that you can…
Comment linking /2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/
on “Nicomachean Ethics”Submitted The Great Myths 7: “Hitler’s Pope”? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionWith regards to the pagan origins of Christmas I learned quite a bit by reading some of the linked articles here (such as the one about Yule or about the Christmas tree): https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ Some quotes from the one about Christmas trees: >People in the twenty-first century have this bizarre, instinctive notion that any custom we have today that we cannot rationally explain must b…
Comment linking /2020/12/pagan-christmas/
on “Some Americans are breaking out of political echo chambers”Submitted The Renaissance Myth as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe date of Easter was decided in AD 325 by the council of Nicea (following earlier traditions and precedents), on grounds having nothing to do with German paganism. https://historyforatheists.com/2017/04/easter-ishtar-eostre-...
Comment linking /2017/04/easter-ishtar-eostre-and-eggs/
on “Life of Brian at 40: an assertion of individual freedom that still resonates”Hypatia’s murder had very little to do with religious conflict against a free thinker and everything to do with class alexandrian class politics. https://historyforatheists.com/2020/07/the-great-myths-9-hyp... Bruno’s execution was of course evil and wrong but it’s also wrong to depict him as some kind of martyr for science and that the Catholics were setting back intellectual progress. Bruno was not a scientist, he…
Comment linking /2020/07/the-great-myths-9-hypatia-of-alexandria/
on “Silence Is a Commons by Ivan Illich (1983)”- wl · 2020-04-23
To contextualize why "history for atheists by an atheist historian" is a thing... > After over ten years of seeing supposed “rationalists”, most of them with no background in or even knowledge of history, using patent pseudo history as the basis for arguments against and attacks on religion, I felt someone needed to start correcting the popular misconceptions about history which are rife among many vocal atheist act…
Comment linking /about-the-author-and-a-faq/
on “Ancient Egyptian pregnancy test survived millenia because it worked (2018)” https://historyforatheists.com/2017/07/the-destruction-of-th... History for atheists by an atheist historian. Lots of references in this article.
Comment linking /2017/07/the-destruction-of-the-great-library-of-alexandria/
on “Ancient Egyptian pregnancy test survived millenia because it worked (2018)”> much of what we consider “Western secular” values and ideas are really just modifications and reinterpretations of old Christian and Greco-Roman ideas. Tom Holland goes over this in his recent book Dominion as well: * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-makin... * https://historyforatheists.com/2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/ See also from a sociological perspective as well: * https://en.wikipedia…
Comment linking /2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/
on “So You Want to Study Philosophy”> Life is so short, read nothing but the cornerstones (this may not be that) of western thought. The cornerstone of Western thought would be more Aristotle, especially given the influence he had on Christian/Catholic thought via the Scholastics (Aquinas). Western values are Christian values (Catholic and later Protestant): * https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-makin... * https://historyforatheists…
Comment linking /2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/
on “So You Want to Study Philosophy”> How about the Christians that spent many centuries actually destroying and forgetting the works and achievements of the ancient world [3]? This is apparently a myth. See: https://historyforatheists.com/2020/03/the-great-myths-8-the...
Comment linking /2020/03/the-great-myths-8-the-loss-of-ancient-learning/
on “Spartan School (2019)”- wl · 2022-10-08
The appropriation of pagan holidays by Christianity is a myth, originally pushed by Protestants to discredit extra-biblical Catholic traditions but later uncritically accepted by atheist activists who didn't know any better. https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY
Comment linking /2020/12/pagan-christmas/
on “Jewish Calendar Demystified (2007)” > If you excuse the inherent bias, Fr. Casey Cole has a good recent video on the matter, however, he focuses more on Christmas than Halloween: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpYNQgb_IAE History for Atheists has posts on 'pagan origin' topics: * https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ * https://historyforatheists.com/2023/12/interview-dr-philipp-... * https://historyforatheists.com/2017/04/easter-ish…
Comment linking /2023/04/interview-andrew-henry-on-easter-and-pagan-origins/
on “A deep history of Halloween”> As far as I know it’s build on a harvest festival which happened to be when the veil between our world and other worlds were thin. That didn’t necessarily mean spirits of dead people, but also faeries and stuff. A lot of these types of claims came from the book The Golden Bough , which gets things wrong: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough A good weblog post that goes into primary sources and how Boug…
Comment linking /2021/10/is-halloween-pagan/
on “A deep history of Halloween”The History for Atheists weblog has a good entry called "Is Halloween Pagan?": > The short answer is “no”. Contrary to Seth Andrews’ claims about “the Catholic Church” stealing a pagan festival “involving the druid priests and the people dressing up in masks and tricks and treats”, the date and most of the traditions are firmly Christian in origin. The November 1 date that is the centre of “Allhallowmas” was not der…
Comment linking /2022/10/pagan-halloween/
on “A deep history of Halloween”Quite possibly; however, it's very difficult to say due to lack of data and no way to prove it one way or the other. I do know that within Christian theological circles, this would have been considered an abhorrent crime of bearing false witness, just as it has always been. The other reason it's difficult is the sheer prevalence, even in our modern culture, of the Black Legend which injected all sorts of myths regar…
Comment linking /2024/02/the-great-myths-14-the-inquisition-myths-and-history/
on “The Wrongs of Thomas More”Somewhat unrelated but his Library of Alexandria episode is not very accurate: https://historyforatheists.com/2017/07/the-destruction-of-th... https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/1nqrl0/carl_sag...
Comment linking /2017/07/the-destruction-of-the-great-library-of-alexandria/
on “OK for Apple to Call Sagan 'Butt-Head Astronomer' (1994)”I would recommend: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_Wor... As well as Dominion by Tom Holland: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Holland_(author) * https://historyforatheists.com/2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/
Comment linking /2020/01/tom-holland-dominion/
on “The Best Books on the Great Divergence”Epistemology in ancient history is hard, but we know enough to make good estimates of the survival rate of ancient Greek and Latin literary texts http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2009/10/26/reference-for-... Roger S. Bagnall, "Alexandria: Library of Dreams" https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/28263 https://historyforatheists.com/2017/10/lost-books-photios-bi...
Comment linking /2017/10/lost-books-photios-bibliotheca/
on “Who preserved Greek literature? (2020)”- wl · 2022-10-10
No and no. https://historyforatheists.com/2020/12/pagan-christmas/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJq70tf0AsY
Comment linking /2020/12/pagan-christmas/
on “Assyrian Soft Power” I'm sure that there would have been examples of all the issues that thrance covers, but generally flat earthing wasn't a thing back then. This is a useful website for the arguments: https://historyforatheists.com/the-great-myths/
Comment linking /the-great-myths/
on “Gods in the Classroom: Religion and Education in First Millennium BCE Babylonia”The two Strange Notions articles are written by Tim O'Neill who has his own site: * https://historyforatheists.com/jesus-mythicism/
Comment linking /jesus-mythicism/
on “The Strange Afterlife of Pontius Pilate (2016)”
