[Discuss] anti-state-religion

[Lyman Stone]

> Not being part of a religion was unheard of, I know it is hard to  
> understand today, because of science, but at the time it did not  
> happen.  People have argued that atheism has been around since the  
> Greek times, and I will not argue that, but when people publicly  
> said they were atheist they were almost always (I don't know if  
> they always were because I wasn't alive then) sentenced to death  
> for heresy.

Note the Inquisition and, oh, hey, what do ya know? Socrates!  
Naturally his case was a bit different, but it bore some similarities.

Atheism has probably always existed, yeah. But the question is how  
public it was. The fact that there was an Inquisition at all in the  
medieval period leads me, at least, to believe that perhaps, just  
maybe (call me crazy!) religious deviancy might not have been  
encouraged. Naturally I'm just making lunatic assertions here,  
everybody knows that medieval Europe was the picture of religious  
diversity, and nobody was ever forced to join any religion or face  
persecution.