Imagine being born into ancient times, would you be Atheist?

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A la Descartes's picture
Imagine being born into ancient times, would you be Atheist?

I often do "Thought Experiments" and run through "What If" scenarios.

For instance... What if I were born into many different ancient societies would I still be an Atheist in each of them back then and back there? I like to think so. If I were in ancient Egypt, I would like to believe I would be a skeptic and say.. "Naw.. I think there is no afterlife and RA is baloney and I don't believe in that spiritual nonsense"

Or, in Norse Viking times, "Na, Odin is bull and is only imaginary, so are all the other non-existent gods, I don't believe in invisible gods and I am not wasting my time on this garbage."

Etc..

Now, I might have been killed, but I like to think in every case I would persist in a perfect skeptical rejection of the supernatural world. And I would have been correct in each case. Yes, I would have been right every time.

Now, imagine asking your religious Christian friends having the same situation for them. Would they be believers in the Aztec religion if they are born into Aztec life?

If they say "No" then ask them why? So how would they not adopt the cultural norm of their time and place like they do now?" Or, would they be Atheists? They could not be Christians! How would they know in pre-Christian America anything about Christ.. They would hear nothing other than Aztec beliefs?

If they say "Yes they would be Aztec religion adherents" then ask them if they would participate in human sacrifice and other rituals of Aztec religion?

If so, would they be in Heaven or Hell now after death? Since they would have done something the Christian religion (the "right" one) forbids?

Watch them squirm trying to justify the answers.

We Atheists have nothing to justify, we were right at every time and place... = NO GODS!

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Jeff Vella Leone's picture
In ancient times Atheist

In ancient times Atheist meant A-theos
Theos= god
A= without

So "without god"/godless

The word atheist changed meanings according to society it was in.

"Atheism was first used to describe a self-avowed belief in late 18th-century Europe, specifically denoting disbelief in the monotheistic Abrahamic god. In the 20th century, globalization contributed to the expansion of the term to refer to disbelief in all deities, though it remains common in Western society to describe atheism as simply "disbelief in God"."
http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Etymology_of_the_word_atheist

Your same argument applies to being born in an Islamic country like Saudi Arabia, would they be Christians?

It is related to the argument that religion obeys borders.

God would never be so stupid to to make his religion so weak that it obeys borders and to this day there are places that never even heard about the "salvation".

It is also related to the argument that god did not give a dam about people who came before his salvation message.
Before 2000 years ago it was OK to send babies to burn for eternity, god only started to care 2000 years ago.

Christians are insane and they don't know it.

You have to be insane to believe such nonsense, it is a prerequisite.

That is why they don't want to remove the proved immoral action of indoctrination.

You teach children HOW to think, NOT WHAT to think.

chimp3's picture
How could one be a skeptic (

How could one be a skeptic ( in the modern sense ) without the language of skepticism? The word "discover" was not in use until the fifteenth century Portuguese found land that was not on any European's map. Science is an invention of the late sixteenth century. The word "fact" in the modern sense was not used until the seventeenth century. The arguments we atheists put forth on this forum are dependent on the concepts invented during the age of reason. Do you believe you would have overcome the zeitgeist of ancient Egypt and created the concepts of modern skepticism and atheism all alone ? We stand on the shoulders of giants my friends .

Vincent Paul Tran1's picture
i think its definitely

i think its definitely possible. Socrates was an atheist, or at very least a practising one

Nutmeg's picture
I would imagine there were

I would imagine there were many people who doubted or disbelieved the religions of the time. It couldn't be otherwise, given the blatant lies being propogated for material gain and the oppression of the masses. They would have said nothing, though, for fear of their lives.

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