Battling the Gods

Atheism in the Ancient World

By: Tim Whitmarsh

Narrated by: James Langton

Long before the European Enlightenment and the Darwinian revolution, which we often take to mark the birth of the modern revolt against religious explanations of the world, brave people doubted the power of the gods. Religion provoked skepticism in ancient Greece, and heretics argued that history must be understood as a result of human action rather than divine intervention. They devised theories of the cosmos based on matter and notions of matter based on atoms. They developed mathematical tools that could be applied to the world around them and tried to understand that world in material terms. Their skepticism left a rich legacy of literature, philosophy, and science and was defended by great writers like Epicurus, Lucretius, Cicero, and Lucian.

Tim Whitmarsh tells the story of the tension between orthodoxy and heresy with great panache, a story that ended - for the moment - with the imposition of Christianity on the Roman Empire in 313 CE.

©2015 Tim Whitmarsh. Recorded by arrangement with Knopf, an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

We have a history as long and as rich as any relig

amazing book. recommended by Dr. Richard Carrier for a course on the history of Atheism. how sad that so many of us went through life feeling alone and out of place. rejoice! Atheists have always been around trying to knock sense into people... unfortunately, we rarely had political power. Now though, secular humanism points the way.to human flourishing. cheers!

An Excellent book

A well written good researched book about atheism in Greek and the Roman world, the Atheism in the Greeko Roman philosophy was the grandfather of the Modern atheism that appeared in the Enlightenment era in 18th and 19th century,unfortunately the Atheism won the battle in the Enlightenment era but it didn't won the whole war, Atheism and Religion especially monotheism is in a constant struggle and fight until the end of the world.

Fascinating history of atheism in ancient times

This book was quite fascinating, and should be of interest to atheists and theists alike, to understand how from ancient times there was a vast variety of beliefs. The book covers Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire until some time after Constantine, when atheism was suppressed. The book could use, I think, some better editing in that sometimes I sensed a repetitiveness. The narrator took some getting used to - something a bit stilted at first, but I got used to him and he was fine enough. I was not at all bored, which can happen with non-fiction.

a wonderful work

a wonderful work for exposing bad history and weak philosophy put forward by many in the new atheist movement.