Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists
@timoneill.bsky.social
History writer, medievalist, blogger, atheist, sceptic and expatriate Tasmanian. http://linktr.ee/timoneill
"Concering Hobbits" - So last week actor/director Andy Serkis kicked off yet another tedious culture war via an interview with the BBC. He's filming an unasked-for bit of IP squeezing by Warner Brothers, who need to get cash from their purchase of rights to *The Lord of the
Very little. The Holy See is (adjusted for inflation) the single biggest funder of astronomical research in history. As for Galileo, he was found guilty of suspicion of heresy, spent one day in gaol, and the rest of his life living in a palace, and continued to publish heliocentrism around Europe.
🇨🇦 l.faraday 🇨🇦@mizati.bsky.social · last mo.I always wonder how much science would have advanced if it wasn’t held back by religion. #Atheist
Just uploaded to the History for Atheists channel, my long awaited interview with Prof. Bart Ehrman on Jesus Mythicism. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKP_...
Bart Ehrman - Jesus Mythicism
YouTube video by History for Atheists
youtube.com
Coming soon to the History for Atheists channel …
New on History for Atheists: my long awaited and rather long critical review of Alice Roberts' new book *Domination*: historyforatheists.com/2025/10/revi...
I recently had the privilege of talking with Tim O'Neill for his show, History for Atheists, and the episode is out now. You can check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7kS...
Dan McClellan - The Hebrew Bible
YouTube video by History for Atheists
youtube.com
Just uploaded to the History for Atheists channel, my conversation with Dr Dan McClellan @maklelan.bsky.social on the Hebrew Bible, its texts, contexts and misconceptions. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7kS...
Help make it happen - help raise the speaker's fee so Bart Ehrman can appear on History for Atheists on @indiegogo Help make it happen - help raise the speaker's fee so Bart Ehrman can appear on History for Atheists on @indiegogo
New on History for Atheists: The Great Myths 16 - The Conflict Between Science and Religion. If there is a foundational myth that underpins a great deal of anti-theist bad history, it's the notorious Conflict Thesis. historyforatheists.com/2025/08/the-...
My next interview on the History for Atheists channel will be with Dr Dan McClellan @maklelan.bsky.social on things atheists get wrong about the Hebrew Bible/OT, early Jewish beliefs, the history of ancient Israel etc. What would you like me to ask Dan about?
Just uploaded to the History for Atheists channel, my interview with @ProfTCSchmidt on his new book *Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ* (Oxford, 2025) www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L2b...
Addendum: After my critique of his video (supposedly) on Tom Holland's *Dominion*. Stephen Woodford/@rationalityrules.bsky.social has copped a lot of flak in his comments and has posted some (weak) excuses and then delisted the video. ... historyforatheists.com/2025/05/rati...
"Rationality Rules" Bungles Tom Holland - History for Atheists
In 2019 public historian Tom Holland published his book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, a thematic history examining the ways Christianity has fundamentally influenced western thinking. The ...
historyforatheists.com
“The Renaissance” was actually medieval. As I’ve been telling people for years.
Mateusz Fafinski@calthalas.bsky.social · last yr."The Renaissance" is not a result of a linear "revolution". It was a medieval phenomenon, rooted in ideas circulating for centuries (Giotto was born c. 1267). The Middle Ages had multiple periods of seeing "classical" ideas as fashionable. Works like Vitruvius were widely read and influential. 1/
New on History for Atheists - Stephen Woodford aka "Rationality Rules" (@RationalityRule) takes aim at Tom Holland's *Dominion* and ... shoots himself in the foot. historyforatheists.com/2025/05/rati...
Just uploaded to the History for Atheists video channel, my interview with Dr Ada Palmer on her very entertaining book *Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age*. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq1k...
In case anyone is wondering, my account on X has been locked or suspended. Why? Who knows. Which is it? Who knows. Will I get it back? Who knows. What's going on? Who knows.
"In this engaging, bewitching, and eminently readable doorstop of a book, Palmer invites us to reconsider the Renaissance...” @kaydaly.bsky.social's review of “Inventing the Renaissance” by Ada Palmer is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/03/25/i...
Diverting the Flood of History: Ada Palmer’s “Inventing the Renaissance” - Chicago Review of Books
Our review of Ada Palmer’s new book, "Inventing the Renaissance."
chireviewofbooks.com
Just posted to HIstory for Atheists: "Did the Pope Apologise to Galileo?" historyforatheists.com/2025/03/gali...
This week on the blog, I court controversy by suggesting that our understanding of history has in fact improved over the decades #history #academia salutemmundo.wordpress.com/2025/03/20/n...
Never Trust Any Work of History Over the Age of Fifty!: Or, Please Stop Citing Edward Gibbon to Try to Win Arguments on the Internet
When I first began marking undergraduate essays, I noticed a curious phenomenon in the footnotes. In place of the cutting-edge reading list that I had painstakingly assembled, all accessible either…
salutemmundo.wordpress.com
Oh dear. Well, I suppose it's been eight years since Catherine Nixey's *The Darkening Age* peddled a highly selective Gibbonian narrative about Christianity causing "the Dark Ages, so it was inevitable we get another such book. @profaliceroberts.bsky.social is well qualified in medicine, ...
Just uploaded to the History for Atheists video channel, my interview with Dr Nathan Johnstone on his book *The New Atheism, Myth and History* and bad anti-theistic historiography. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X5b...
No sensible person would get their history from the BBC drama *Rogue Heroes*, which tells a slightly fanciful, "boys own adventure" version of the beginnings of the SAS in WWII. The show itself warns in its credits that it isn't really history. But its depiction of a Nazi flag...
Tyndale was not executed for translating the Bible #maklelan2489 youtu.be/JWjBNB7lDoY
Tyndale was not executed for translating the Bible
YouTube video by Dan McClellan
youtu.be
It is accomplished! I have finally completed my long, detailed and fully referenced article on the various claims about "pagan origins" Christmas. It's a long one - nearly 12,000 words. historyforatheists.com/2024/12/paga...
The Christmas season is well and truly upon us, so watch out for some very iffy history floating about. It is better to pre-bunk than debunk, so here is one: The cult of Mithras has nothing to do with the origins of Christmas! www.badancient.com/claims/jesus...
Did Jesus steal Mithras' birthday?
Christmas time often brings with it the claim that early Christians stole the story and date for Jesus’ birth from the cult of Mithras. There is no ancient evidence that confirms this.
badancient.com
The Middle Ages were a plunge into the superstitious after the rational culture of Antiquity! Romans: So hear me out, have you tried asking chickens what to do?
Ugh. Judging from the first photos of the upcoming BBC "historical [sic!] drama, *King and Conquerer*":, the budget didn't extend to a historical consultant who could tell them what 11th century clothing and armour looked like. It seems old *Game of Thrones* gear was used instead. So, as usual,...
Was happy to talk to @jasonaw.bsky.social for this about how wrong (and far right) Hegseth is on the Crusades #medievalsky www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
Trump Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth’s books foreground anti-Muslim rhetoric
Hegseth’s conspiracy theory- and falsehood-laden book American Crusade depicts Islam as historic enemy of west
theguardian.com
