(February 12, 2015 at 7:46 pm)watchamadoodle Wrote: I read a post on another forum from a person whose parent or grandparent only admitted to being an atheist just before death. Apparently that atheist kept his/her beliefs secret for some reason.
I wonder what it was like to be an atheist back in the 1700s or 1800s or even the early 1900s?
Throughout most of history, being an atheist was illegal, with death as the punishment, and often in a very unpleasant way. The idea of a separation of church and state is a relatively modern one. So, in most countries throughout most of history, you had to at least pretend to believe whatever the state religion was, if you wanted to continue living.
Now, for the dates you are mentioning, the situation is, overall, much better than in earlier times. But even so, one needed to be careful. David Hume (1711-1776) was denied positions, likely due to his perceived irreligion, and he was careful to never publicly say that he did not believe in a god. Not to mention the fact that he is now widely regarded as the greatest philosopher to write in the English language. And he was personally very likable, according to pretty much all contemporary accounts of him. If he was screwed in such circumstances, it would be very bad for someone of his time who was an outspoken atheist, who was not as personable or as brilliant.
Basically, taking the world as a whole, if you are an atheist and want to publicly proclaim it, any time in the past would be worse than today. And even now, atheists are one of the most distrusted groups in America. So it isn't as if now is that great. But in the past, it was worse, and exactly how much worse depends on exactly when and where we are talking about.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
