History for Atheists

Tim O'Neill
  • 5.0 (3)
  • EDUCATION
History for Atheists

Atheist activism has a serious history problem. In the History for Atheists podcast, history writer Tim O'Neill tries to correct the misconceptions many of his fellow atheists have about history and debunks some common myths and fringe ideas about religious history generally.

  1. Dr Nathan Johnstone Interview - New Atheist Bad History

    30 JAN

    Dr Nathan Johnstone Interview - New Atheist Bad History

    My guest today is Dr Nathan Johnstone. Nathan is the author of the excellent 2018 book, The New Atheism, Myth and History: The Black Legends of Contemporary Anti-Religion. Like me, Nathan is an unbeliever. And, like me, he has been concerned at the way many of our more anti-theistic fellow atheists have misused history in their arguments. His book covers many of the same examples of this as the articles on my site History for Atheist, so it was a great pleasure to get the chance to sit down w...

    1h 14m
  2. Dr David Perry Interview - The "Dark Ages"

    17/11/2024

    Dr David Perry Interview - The "Dark Ages"

    My guest today is Dr David M. Perry . David is a medieval historian and author of several books, including The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe and the forthcoming Oathbreakers, both co-authored with Matthew Gabriele. He has taught medieval history at Dominican University and is currently the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Minnesota. The Bright Ages sought to refute common misconceptions about the Middle Ages and counter the misconception that th...

    55 min
  3. Dr Kipp Davis Interview - Jewish Apocalypticism

    08/07/2024

    Dr Kipp Davis Interview - Jewish Apocalypticism

    My guest today is Dr Kipp Davis. Kipp is a biblical scholar and an expert in early Jewish literature and history, with a focus on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester (2009), has held several professional academic appointments in Europe and North America, and has published widely on the topics related to the Bible, its creation, development and transmission in the Second Temple period. His work on manuscript forgeries in private collections and best prac...

    1h 32m
  4. Hypatia - Myths and History

    06/04/2024

    Hypatia - Myths and History

    The story often told about Hypatia of Alexandria was that she was a great scientist, rationalist and scholar who was brutally murdered by a mob of Christians who hated her knowledge and learning, with her death ushering in the Dark Ages. But this story is mostly nonsense and the real history is far more complex and much more interesting. Contrary to the myths, she was not a modern-style scientist, she was far from an atheist or what we would regard as a rationalist and her murder was due to t...

    53 min
  5. Dr Philipp Nothaft Interview - The Date of Christmas

    03/01/2024

    Dr Philipp Nothaft Interview - The Date of Christmas

    My guest today is Dr Philipp Nothaft. Philipp is a Fellow of All Souls Oxford and a historian specializing in astronomy, astrology and calendars in late antiquity, the Middle Ages and early modern Europe. He’s also the author of a key paper on the question of why Christmas falls on December 25th, which is our main topic today. It’s often claimed in pop history that Christians stole a pagan feast day and made it into Christmas, and this is a version of a thesis scholars developed in the late n...

    1 hr
  6. Prof. Ken Dark Interview - The Archaeology of Jesus' Nazareth

    03/07/2023

    Prof. Ken Dark Interview - The Archaeology of Jesus' Nazareth

    My guest today is Professor Ken Dark. Ken is Visiting Professor at King's College and formerly Professor of Archaeology and History at the University of Reading. His archaeological work has focused on Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Era, but, as he and I will discuss, this led him to study sites in Nazareth which will be the focus of our discussion today. His analysis of these sites is the focus of his new book Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth (Oxford University Press, 2023) which draws ...

    1h 30m
  7. Joseph AP Wilson Interview - Was Paul Sexist?

    28/02/2023

    Joseph AP Wilson Interview - Was Paul Sexist?

    Both conservative Christians and many atheist activists point to 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and note how Paul forbids women to speak in church. The Christians do this to maintain that women should not preach and cannot be pastors or priests. The atheists usually do so to hold this up as evidence that Paul was a misogynist and Christianity is inherently sexist. But did Paul really write this? And was it Christianity which made the Greco-Roman world less egalitarian or was it actually … the other wa...

    1h 7m
  8. Cats and the Black Death

    31/01/2023

    Cats and the Black Death

    Some atheists and even some prominent scientists claim that the Black Death was caused or at least made worse by a wholesale massacre of cats ordered by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. But is this true? And where did this strange story come from?

    43 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Atheist activism has a serious history problem. In the History for Atheists podcast, history writer Tim O'Neill tries to correct the misconceptions many of his fellow atheists have about history and debunks some common myths and fringe ideas about religious history generally.

Information

  • Creator
    Tim O'Neill
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 History for Atheists
  • Show Website
    History for Atheists

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