Thomas Aikenhead

[Gerard]

Hello. Long time no post! Sorry about that. Anyone ever heard of Thomas Aikenhead? He could be described as a martyr for.... well for what exactly I wonder. Perhaps not exactly atheism but we should be aware of this guy who was hanged in Scotland in 1697 for blasphemy!

That ... the prisoner had repeatedly maintained, in conversation, that theology was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the moral doctrines of philosophers, and partly of poetical fictions and extravagant chimeras: That he ridiculed the holy scriptures, calling the Old Testament Ezra's fables, in profane allusion to Esop's Fables; That he railed on Christ, saying, he had learned magick in Egypt, which enabled him to perform those pranks which were called miracles: That he called the New Testament the history of the imposter Christ; That he said Moses was the better artist and the better politician; and he preferred Muhammad to Christ: That the Holy Scriptures were stuffed with such madness, nonsense, and contradictions, that he admired the stupidity of the world in being so long deluded by them: That he rejected the mystery of the Trinity as unworthy of refutation; and scoffed at the incarnation of Christ.

Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aikenhead

This happened when stuff like burning people at the stake were supposed to be long over!

Gerard

[Green Bottle]

Interesting Gerard, id never heard of this guy before....

[Unbeliever]

He sounds a lot like Thomas Paine, but was unlucky enough to live near the end of a barbaric time, but not near enough.

[stromboli]

Welcome back, G. This guy sounds like an intellect that had more guts than sense, but maybe we need people like that.